Britishness, what it is and what it could be, is now high on both ...

Peggy Com<strong>be</strong>llack’s conundrum: locating the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y
Over a decade ago David Cannadine warned that a potentially “excessive concentration
on ‘<strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong>’” ran the r<strong>is</strong>k of ignoring the “many alternative, individual ident<strong>it</strong>ies,
sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory, which are more locally - but no less
purposefully – articulated”. 1 Since then the flood of wr<strong>it</strong>ing on <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> has continued
unabated. 2 It has <strong>be</strong>en more recently joined by a growing l<strong>it</strong>erature on Engl<strong>is</strong>hness, some
of which has explored the relationship <strong>be</strong>tween Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>ies. 3 Indeed,
since the turn of the century Cabinet min<strong>is</strong>ters have made speeches about <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> <strong>and</strong>
journal<strong>is</strong>ts have wr<strong>it</strong>ten about Engl<strong>is</strong>hness. An end-of-century angst about <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> has
joined w<strong>it</strong>h the insecur<strong>it</strong>ies of an Engl<strong>is</strong>h intelligentsia made uneasy by post-colonial<strong>is</strong>m,
devolution to Scotl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales, the European project <strong>and</strong> global<strong>is</strong>ation as
commentators have sought to locate themselves in a changing l<strong>and</strong>scape. 4 However,
whereas Engl<strong>is</strong>hness has <strong>now</strong> <strong>be</strong>come a f<strong>it</strong> subject for pol<strong>it</strong>e conversation the further
scales of ident<strong>it</strong>y that can in turn <strong>be</strong> found w<strong>it</strong>hin Engl<strong>and</strong> are less explored, desp<strong>it</strong>e the
observation that unevenness at the regional scale “will continue to complicate the
collective representation of Engl<strong>and</strong>”. 5 Now that <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> <strong>and</strong> Engl<strong>is</strong>hness are firmly
ensconced in academic consciousness <strong>and</strong> pol<strong>it</strong>ical debate, we might go <strong>be</strong>yond them, to
the local<strong>it</strong>ies <strong>and</strong> regions of Engl<strong>and</strong> (<strong>and</strong> Scotl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales) in order to explore the
way in which those scales of ident<strong>it</strong>y interact w<strong>it</strong>h the nations of Br<strong>it</strong>ain.
Th<strong>is</strong> article pursues the <strong>is</strong>sue of ident<strong>it</strong>y onto an apparently sub-national terrain,
investigating the rarely addressed case of Cornwall. Cornwall makes intriguing though
fleeting appearances in the l<strong>it</strong>erature on Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>tory <strong>and</strong> national<strong>is</strong>m. 6 Its small size,
only 1.5 percent of the l<strong>and</strong> area of the UK, has ensured <strong>it</strong>s lack of v<strong>is</strong>ibil<strong>it</strong>y. Yet scale
has not <strong>be</strong>en the only factor. Tom Nairn, in h<strong>is</strong> excoriating polemic After Br<strong>it</strong>ain, points
out how “<strong>be</strong>yond the familiar Scotl<strong>and</strong>-Irel<strong>and</strong>-Wales triad there <strong>now</strong> lies the question of
Cornwall, <strong>and</strong> of the very small terr<strong>it</strong>ories, the Isle of Man, Jersey <strong>and</strong> Guernsey, which
were simply ignored by trad<strong>it</strong>ional all-Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h pol<strong>it</strong>ical reflection – too insignificant to
figure, as <strong>it</strong> were, in <strong>it</strong>s dazzling image of greatness <strong>and</strong> global reach”. 7 But Cornwall has
not <strong>be</strong>en cons<strong>is</strong>tently ignored. Rather, <strong>it</strong>s categor<strong>is</strong>ation w<strong>it</strong>hin Br<strong>it</strong>ain seems to present a
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puzzle. In the 1920s A.K.Hamilton Jenkin, Cornwall’s mining h<strong>is</strong>torian, recounted an
apocryphal story from the nineteenth century:
“Hes Coornwall a nashion [nation], hes a a Hil<strong>and</strong> [<strong>is</strong>l<strong>and</strong>], or hes a ferren
[foreign] country?”, an old school dame, Peggy Com<strong>be</strong>llack, would ask.
“He hedn’t no nashon, he hedn’t no <strong>high</strong>lan, nor he hedn’t no ferren country,” the
brightest of the scholars on one occasion answered.
“What hes a then?” asked Peggy.
“Why, he’s kidged [joined] to a furren country from the top h<strong>and</strong>”, was the reply. 8
Peggy Com<strong>be</strong>llack’s conundrum <strong>is</strong>, according to modern Corn<strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>torian Philip Payton,
“as significant today as <strong>it</strong> was in Peggy’s time”. For Payton, Cornwall <strong>and</strong> the Corn<strong>is</strong>h
“remain together an enigma – not falling neatly or happily into the new categories that
are appearing, a battleground perhaps for conflicting v<strong>is</strong>ions, constructions, imaginings of
Corn<strong>is</strong>hness, Celtic<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong>”. 9
If th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> the case, <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> some<strong>what</strong> surpr<strong>is</strong>ing that Cornwall has <strong>be</strong>en largely ignored in the
academic l<strong>it</strong>erature on Br<strong>it</strong>ain <strong>and</strong> <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong>. Here <strong>is</strong> an instance of an ident<strong>it</strong>y from
w<strong>it</strong>hin which some people claim national status, but, uniquely, from a marginal location
at the edge of Engl<strong>is</strong>hness. Th<strong>is</strong> emplacement guarantees Cornwall’s categorically
uncertain place in academic d<strong>is</strong>courses. Both “of Engl<strong>and</strong>” <strong>and</strong> “not of Engl<strong>and</strong>”, <strong>it</strong>
defies easy analys<strong>is</strong>. Cornwall <strong>and</strong> the Corn<strong>is</strong>h teeter on the brink of a conceptual <strong>and</strong>
h<strong>is</strong>toriographical crevasse, ne<strong>it</strong>her county nor nation. As a result of th<strong>is</strong> conceptual
ind<strong>is</strong>tinctiveness, <strong>it</strong>s ident<strong>it</strong>y remains unfathomed. The intention here <strong>is</strong> to restore
Cornwall <strong>and</strong> Corn<strong>is</strong>hness to a more v<strong>is</strong>ible place in the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h mosaic, both as a unique
case in <strong>it</strong>s own right <strong>and</strong> as a useful comparator for work on other Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h regions <strong>and</strong>
nations. In order to do so I first trace the parameters of Corn<strong>is</strong>hness. The article then
moves on to review how Cornwall <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong>s ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>is</strong> addressed w<strong>it</strong>hin various categories,
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efore concluding that only a h<strong>is</strong>torically sens<strong>it</strong>ive account fully explains the case of
contemporary Corn<strong>is</strong>hness. Finally, <strong>it</strong> outlines a more nuanced h<strong>is</strong>torical narrative of the
formation of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong>s relation to Engl<strong>is</strong>hness <strong>and</strong> <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong>.
Ident<strong>it</strong>y in Cornwall
Richard Jenkins reminds us that social categorization <strong>is</strong> enormously influential in
reproducing social ident<strong>it</strong>ies. Boundaries are drawn <strong>and</strong> those who live inside them are
defined <strong>and</strong> categorized mainly via an externally located process <strong>and</strong> the exerc<strong>is</strong>e of
power. 10 Cornwall’s category <strong>is</strong> often taken for granted. Its admin<strong>is</strong>tration as one of
Engl<strong>and</strong>’s 42 h<strong>is</strong>toric counties reinforces an uncr<strong>it</strong>ical view of Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y as one of
those “local ident<strong>it</strong>ies … [that] reflect admin<strong>is</strong>trative [<strong>and</strong> socio-cultural] div<strong>is</strong>ions which
go back one thous<strong>and</strong> years”. 11 But external processes of categorization <strong>and</strong>
differentiation ex<strong>is</strong>t in conjunction w<strong>it</strong>h internal processes of group identification <strong>and</strong>
integration <strong>and</strong> the two may at times <strong>be</strong> in tension. 12
In order to grasp the Corn<strong>is</strong>h case properly a d<strong>is</strong>tinction has to <strong>be</strong> made at the outset
<strong>be</strong>tween place <strong>and</strong> people <strong>and</strong> <strong>be</strong>tween image <strong>and</strong> ident<strong>it</strong>y. In th<strong>is</strong> respect Anssi Paasi
usefully d<strong>is</strong>tingu<strong>is</strong>hes the “ident<strong>it</strong>y of a region” from “regional ident<strong>it</strong>y or
consciousness”. The former relates to the images used in the d<strong>is</strong>courses <strong>and</strong>
classifications of pol<strong>it</strong>ics, marketing <strong>and</strong> governance. These act to “delim<strong>it</strong>, name <strong>and</strong>
symbolize space <strong>and</strong> groups of people”. But the “ident<strong>it</strong>y of a region”, perhaps <strong>be</strong>tter
descri<strong>be</strong>d as the regional image, co-ex<strong>is</strong>ts w<strong>it</strong>h “regional consciousness”, the mult<strong>is</strong>calar
identification of people w<strong>it</strong>h practices, d<strong>is</strong>courses <strong>and</strong> symbol<strong>is</strong>ms in order to express an
idea of “region”. 13 In Cornwall, these two aspects, the regional image <strong>and</strong> regional
consciousness, can diverge. Terr<strong>it</strong>orially, Cornwall <strong>is</strong> imagined as an integrated part of
Engl<strong>and</strong> but culturally, the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y shows d<strong>is</strong>turbing signs of <strong>be</strong>ing something
else. For example in 2005 a campaign was <strong>be</strong>gun to allow Cornwall to enter a team in the
Commonwealth Games of 2006. Claiming that Cornwall was a “dependent or associated
terr<strong>it</strong>ory” of the Commonwealth <strong>and</strong> thus ent<strong>it</strong>led to a separate team in line w<strong>it</strong>h Article
11 of the Commonwealth Games Const<strong>it</strong>ution, the campaigners were d<strong>is</strong>appointed to <strong>be</strong>
bluntly informed by the Commonwealth Games Federation that “Cornwall <strong>is</strong> no more
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than an Engl<strong>is</strong>h county”. 14 Desp<strong>it</strong>e th<strong>is</strong> rebuff, there was evidence that Cornwall was
<strong>be</strong>coming more central to metropol<strong>it</strong>an imaginations in the first decade of the twenty-first
century. In 2000 Tony Blair included the Corn<strong>is</strong>h as an example of the multiple pol<strong>it</strong>ical
allegiances of the modern Union: “We can comfortably <strong>be</strong> Scott<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h or
Corn<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h or Geordie <strong>and</strong> Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h or Pak<strong>is</strong>tani <strong>and</strong> Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h”. In an uncanny echo,
the other twin peak of New Labour, Gordon Brown, repeated th<strong>is</strong> formula four years
later. It was possible, he was reported as saying, to <strong>be</strong> “Scots or Corn<strong>is</strong>h, Muslim or
Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> still celebrate a Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y which <strong>is</strong> bigger than the sum of the parts”. 15
By bracketing the Corn<strong>is</strong>h w<strong>it</strong>h Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h nations, regions <strong>and</strong> cultural minor<strong>it</strong>ies in th<strong>is</strong>
way these pol<strong>it</strong>icians were hinting at <strong>it</strong>s ambivalent status.
Culturally, the twenty-first century Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>is</strong> allowed to take <strong>it</strong>s place in the
tapestry of Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h multicultural<strong>is</strong>m. However, pol<strong>it</strong>ical recogn<strong>it</strong>ion <strong>is</strong> another thing
altogether. In 2005 the UK Regions Min<strong>is</strong>ter, Jim F<strong>it</strong>zpatrick, rejected calls for a Corn<strong>is</strong>h
regional assembly in the words “we are saying that Cornwall <strong>is</strong> a county; <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> a separate
ent<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> not a region, <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong> does not f<strong>it</strong> our plans for regional devolution”. 16 A
campaign for an elected regional assembly for Cornwall had <strong>be</strong>en launched in 2000,
supported amongst others by Mebyon Ker<strong>now</strong> (MK), a pol<strong>it</strong>ical party that has
campaigned for measures of devolution to Cornwall since 1950. 17 Although struggling to
attain a v<strong>is</strong>ibil<strong>it</strong>y outside (<strong>and</strong> sometimes inside) Cornwall, the ex<strong>is</strong>tence of an
autonom<strong>is</strong>t party, <strong>it</strong>s continuous presence for half a century <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong>s scattering of elected
local government councillors reveals an ident<strong>it</strong>y that goes well <strong>be</strong>yond the run of the mill
Engl<strong>is</strong>h county or region. But MK’s presence also serves to obscure the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y.
Unable to d<strong>is</strong>tingu<strong>is</strong>h <strong>be</strong>tween Corn<strong>is</strong>h national<strong>is</strong>m <strong>and</strong> Corn<strong>is</strong>hness, there has <strong>be</strong>en a
tendency for observers to conflate the two. MK’s inabil<strong>it</strong>y to poll more than 4 percent in
any Parliamentary election must <strong>be</strong> proof that the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>is</strong> weak or even that
there <strong>is</strong> “no d<strong>is</strong>tinctive Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y”. 18 In a mirror image, native scholarship w<strong>it</strong>hin
Cornwall reverses th<strong>is</strong> conclusion. Wr<strong>it</strong>ers w<strong>it</strong>hin the field of Corn<strong>is</strong>h Studies respond
that work on Cornwall has “led to serious underestimation of the strength of Corn<strong>is</strong>h
ethnic ident<strong>it</strong>y (<strong>and</strong> the factors that have led to <strong>it</strong>s perpetuation)”. 19 Th<strong>is</strong> perspective
argues for a “strong” Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y based on a heightened sense of “difference”
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accompanying rapid social change since the 1960s. 20 But shared assumptions that
ident<strong>it</strong>ies are e<strong>it</strong>her “strong” or “weak” are m<strong>is</strong>taken. For ident<strong>it</strong>ies cannot <strong>be</strong> easily
captured in an absolute sense; instead, they are relational <strong>and</strong> contextual, fluid <strong>and</strong>
malleable rather than fixed <strong>and</strong> essential. 21
Rather than ex<strong>is</strong>ting as a single ident<strong>it</strong>y to the exclusion of others, <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>now</strong> generally
accepted that ident<strong>it</strong>ies can “nest” one w<strong>it</strong>hin another. 22 Identifying w<strong>it</strong>h local, regional
or national ident<strong>it</strong>ies depends on circumstances. Thus, when the Corn<strong>is</strong>h rugby team was
winning championships in the early 1990s people in Cornwall were more likely to feel
Corn<strong>is</strong>h, wave the black <strong>and</strong> wh<strong>it</strong>e St Piran’s flag <strong>and</strong> adopt other symbols of Cornwall.
But all the while the flag of Engl<strong>and</strong> remained in the background, to <strong>be</strong> unfurled
whenever an Engl<strong>is</strong>h football team competed in an international football championship. 23
Quant<strong>it</strong>atively, the relational aspect of terr<strong>it</strong>orial ident<strong>it</strong>ies <strong>is</strong> recogn<strong>is</strong>ed in the growing
application of the survey question sometimes termed the Moreno ident<strong>it</strong>y scale. 24 Th<strong>is</strong>
interrogates the degree of allegiance to dual ident<strong>it</strong>ies <strong>and</strong> has <strong>now</strong> <strong>be</strong>en used extensively
across western European regions. Interesting differences have emerged <strong>be</strong>tween regions
such as Br<strong>it</strong>tany <strong>and</strong> Galicia, where expressions of dual ident<strong>it</strong>y (region <strong>and</strong> state) are
most common, <strong>and</strong> Scotl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales, where ident<strong>it</strong>ies are more likely to cluster at the
ends of the spectrum w<strong>it</strong>h considerably fewer seeing themselves as both Scott<strong>is</strong>h/Welsh
<strong>and</strong> Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h. 25 However, the meaning of such surveys <strong>is</strong> rendered problematic by the
considerable fluctuations they d<strong>is</strong>play over time, a warning that ident<strong>it</strong>ies are more
malleable than we might assume. 26
No similar quant<strong>it</strong>ative data ex<strong>is</strong>t for Cornwall. Moreover, there are in the Corn<strong>is</strong>h
context not just two ident<strong>it</strong>y allegiances w<strong>it</strong>hin the nation-state to consider but three,
Corn<strong>is</strong>h, Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h. Nonetheless, ethnographic <strong>and</strong> survey work undertaken in
Cornwall provide glimpses into the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y. A study of people in west Cornwall
in the late 1980s concluded that “most Corn<strong>is</strong>h people were very sure of their Corn<strong>is</strong>h
ident<strong>it</strong>y”, although less sure about <strong>what</strong> to term <strong>it</strong>, some asserting <strong>it</strong> was a national
ident<strong>it</strong>y, others a local ident<strong>it</strong>y. 27 In 2004 a survey by Morgan Stanley asked people
across Br<strong>it</strong>ain which level of ident<strong>it</strong>y they considered most relevant to them: European,
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Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h, Engl<strong>is</strong>h or county. Cornwall recorded the <strong>high</strong>est proportion stating that the local
ident<strong>it</strong>y was the most important w<strong>it</strong>h 44 percent of Cornwall’s residents feeling more
Corn<strong>is</strong>h than Engl<strong>is</strong>h, Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h or European. 28 In the 2001 Census people had the
opportun<strong>it</strong>y to identify themselves as Corn<strong>is</strong>h, but to do that they had to deny they were
Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h, tick the “other” box <strong>and</strong> then wr<strong>it</strong>e in “Corn<strong>is</strong>h”. The proportion undertaking th<strong>is</strong>
complex route was low at 6.8 percent of the total population in Cornwall. Nonetheless,
the almost 34,000 in Cornwall people who felt sufficiently impelled to wr<strong>it</strong>e in their
ident<strong>it</strong>y as Corn<strong>is</strong>h were supplemented by a further 3,671 in the rest of the UK, implying
that th<strong>is</strong> was not just identification w<strong>it</strong>h a place of residence. 29 A major postal survey
conducted by Cornwall County Council in 2004 resulted in 35 percent of the 4,052
respondents opting for Corn<strong>is</strong>h as their ethnic<strong>it</strong>y (48 percent declared themselves to <strong>be</strong>
Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> 11 percent Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h). 30 However, the resident population of Cornwall has r<strong>is</strong>en
by 46 percent since 1961 as a result of in-migration, one of the fastest growths in the UK.
As a result <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> likely that <strong>now</strong> only around a half of the present population of Cornwall
were actually brought up in Cornwall. Thus “ethnic<strong>it</strong>y” responses of 35 percent may
equate to up to 70 percent of the native-born population defining their primary ident<strong>it</strong>y as
“Corn<strong>is</strong>h”.
But <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> important “to ask not <strong>what</strong> regional ident<strong>it</strong>ies are but <strong>what</strong> people mean when
they talk or wr<strong>it</strong>e about regional ident<strong>it</strong>ies”. 31 Qual<strong>it</strong>ative evidence suggests the meaning
of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y differs markedly from that of local ident<strong>it</strong>ies in other counties
admin<strong>is</strong>tered as part of Engl<strong>and</strong>. For example, in 1991 the Presidents of the Yorkshire
<strong>and</strong> Cornwall Rugby Football Unions both provided messages <strong>be</strong>fore the County
Championship final of that year <strong>be</strong>tween Cornwall <strong>and</strong> Yorkshire. The Yorkshireman
saw county rugby as a stepping stone to Engl<strong>is</strong>h rugby success. But the Corn<strong>is</strong>hman was
moved to refer to B<strong>is</strong>hop Trelawny’s impr<strong>is</strong>onment in the Tower of London in the
seventeenth century, arguing that “the Corn<strong>is</strong>h have the add<strong>it</strong>ional motivation of a Celtic
people striving to preserve an ident<strong>it</strong>y”. 32 The Corn<strong>is</strong>h can imagine their ident<strong>it</strong>y as e<strong>it</strong>her
a local ident<strong>it</strong>y w<strong>it</strong>hin Engl<strong>and</strong>, or as an ident<strong>it</strong>y which <strong>is</strong> something other than Engl<strong>is</strong>h,
or sometimes both at the same time.
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Terr<strong>it</strong>ory or people? County or nation?
While for many Cornwall’s admin<strong>is</strong>trative location as a county makes the classification
of <strong>it</strong>s ident<strong>it</strong>y a simple matter, others argue <strong>it</strong>s contemporary geo-pol<strong>it</strong>ical status masks
the presence of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h as a d<strong>is</strong>tinct people in the past. Mark Stoyle <strong>is</strong> most pers<strong>is</strong>tent
in arguing that they were important actors in the seventeenth century Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h wars, the last
ep<strong>is</strong>ode in a process whereby the medieval cultural d<strong>is</strong>tinctiveness of Cornwall was
erased. 33 Stoyle works w<strong>it</strong>hin the paradigm of the “New Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>tory”, which aims to
open up the space for a less Anglocentric perspective on the past of the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Isles.
Indeed, intrigued by the motivations of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h participants in the civil wars of the
1640s, John Pocock called for a “Corn<strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>tory (as well as a Welsh, an Argyll or an
Ulster h<strong>is</strong>tory) of the War of the Three Kingdoms”. 34 Other proponents of the New
Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>tory are more wary. John Morrill, for example, adopts a hol<strong>is</strong>tic view of
Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>tory as the story of “four or more peoples”, though <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> clear the “or more”
does not include the Corn<strong>is</strong>h. 35 On balance, <strong>it</strong> remains unlikely that calls for the New
Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>tory to avoid the perspectives, period<strong>is</strong>ation <strong>and</strong> problems of Engl<strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>tory
by adopting a “multivocalic” <strong>and</strong> “multiperspectival” h<strong>is</strong>tory, where for example
Scott<strong>is</strong>h or Welsh-centred Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>tory would <strong>be</strong> equally as valid as an Engl<strong>is</strong>h-centred
Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>tory, would extend so far as a Corn<strong>is</strong>h-centred Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>tory. 36
Cornwall’s role in medieval Engl<strong>and</strong> receives attention in Hastings’ d<strong>is</strong>cussion of the
making of Br<strong>it</strong>ain. 37 For him Cornwall <strong>is</strong> an “interesting but l<strong>it</strong>tle considered case …
fully integrated into Engl<strong>and</strong> desp<strong>it</strong>e <strong>it</strong>s different language” from a relatively early date. It
was “quietly absor<strong>be</strong>d more than <strong>it</strong> was conquered” by pre-1066 Engl<strong>is</strong>h rulers <strong>and</strong>,
<strong>be</strong>cause Engl<strong>and</strong> was still then in an “embryonic” state, <strong>it</strong>s various peoples, including
Danes <strong>and</strong> Corn<strong>is</strong>h, were able to participate “in the inst<strong>it</strong>utional development of Engl<strong>and</strong>
at every point” as groups w<strong>it</strong>h a clear ident<strong>it</strong>y but absor<strong>be</strong>d into a multi-ethnic state. The
Reformation challenged th<strong>is</strong> status <strong>and</strong> was followed by the decline of the “singular<strong>it</strong>y of
the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ethnic ident<strong>it</strong>y w<strong>it</strong>hin Engl<strong>and</strong>. The springboard for any pursu<strong>it</strong> of
independent nationhood was effectively removed”. However Hastings immediately
qualifies th<strong>is</strong> by asserting that “nevertheless, there remained a stronger sense of separate
ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> common purpose … among the people of Cornwall than in any other
7

southern shire … such pol<strong>it</strong>ic<strong>is</strong>able ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>could</strong> hardly <strong>be</strong> found elsewhere”. Hastings’
account allows that the legacy of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h past still colours a more modern Corn<strong>is</strong>h
ident<strong>it</strong>y, although <strong>it</strong>s separate national<strong>it</strong>y merged into Engl<strong>is</strong>hness during <strong>and</strong> after the
sixteenth century. 38 H<strong>is</strong> interpretation <strong>is</strong> echoed by Michael Hechter who focuses on the
trading links of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h economy in the sixteenth century as proof of the early
integration of Cornwall into the Engl<strong>is</strong>h economy <strong>be</strong>fore 1600. 39 Occurring in a context
of the “relative absence of cultural d<strong>is</strong>crimination”, th<strong>is</strong> led to a diffusion process that
undermined a separate sense of Corn<strong>is</strong>h ethnic<strong>it</strong>y. Hechter may, however, overestimate
Cornwall’s early economic integration. Mark Overton et al conclude that <strong>it</strong>s integration
into the Engl<strong>is</strong>h economy took place later, in the seventeenth century, <strong>and</strong> that th<strong>is</strong> was
associated w<strong>it</strong>h deepening relative, <strong>and</strong> even absolute, poverty. “Cornwall experienced
relative deprivation <strong>and</strong> explo<strong>it</strong>ation more remin<strong>is</strong>cent of the Ir<strong>is</strong>h than the Engl<strong>is</strong>h
experience in th<strong>is</strong> period”. 40
In contrast, for other more ideal<strong>is</strong>t h<strong>is</strong>torians, pol<strong>it</strong>ical <strong>and</strong> economic integration did not
result in a loss of ident<strong>it</strong>y. On the contrary, they were the cause of a heightened sense of
cultural difference. Here attention focuses on the making of Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y at the period
Kr<strong>is</strong>han Kumar identifies as a “moment of Engl<strong>is</strong>h national<strong>is</strong>m” at the end of the
nineteenth century. 41 Th<strong>is</strong> also opened up the space for non-Engl<strong>is</strong>h imaginations <strong>and</strong>
Cornwall was constructed as “Celtic”, an example of the “<strong>be</strong>stowal of ident<strong>it</strong>y by the core
on the periphery”. 42 Specifically, art<strong>is</strong>ts attracted to west Cornwall by <strong>it</strong>s accessible
remoteness “helped to give Cornwall a v<strong>is</strong>ibil<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> representational ident<strong>it</strong>y … creating
<strong>it</strong>s iconography”. 43 Th<strong>is</strong> argument <strong>is</strong> echoed by Jane Korey who saw a “semantic space”
opening up w<strong>it</strong>h the decline of Cornwall’s staple industry – metal mining - after the
1860s. 44 Th<strong>is</strong> vacuum was promptly colon<strong>is</strong>ed by the romantic representations of
outsiders who viewed Cornwall as a prim<strong>it</strong>ive <strong>and</strong> liminal place, the oppos<strong>it</strong>e of <strong>and</strong>
antidote to urban civil<strong>is</strong>ation. 45 But <strong>what</strong> might <strong>be</strong> termed a “d<strong>is</strong>covery school” of
h<strong>is</strong>torical wr<strong>it</strong>ing on late Victorian <strong>and</strong> Edwardian Cornwall contains a strong dose of
that “sentimental imperial<strong>is</strong>m” that has <strong>be</strong>en seen as accompanying the romance of area
studies. 46 From such a perspective continu<strong>it</strong>ies of regional consciousness <strong>and</strong> the agency
of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h themselves are suppressed in a focus on the regional image <strong>and</strong> the
8

epresentations of art<strong>is</strong>ts <strong>and</strong> novel<strong>is</strong>ts. 47 Nonetheless, th<strong>is</strong> approach opens up a more
social constructiv<strong>is</strong>t, less material<strong>is</strong>t underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the re-formation of ident<strong>it</strong>y, one
where memories <strong>and</strong> imaginations of the past are as important as shared experiences of
the present. Moreover, <strong>it</strong> <strong>high</strong>lights the volatil<strong>it</strong>y of ident<strong>it</strong>ies <strong>and</strong> the two–way traffic
<strong>be</strong>tween Corn<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Engl<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>ies. James Vernon tellingly remarks that “<strong>it</strong> may <strong>be</strong>
more productive to examine the internal relationships of the inherently unstable ‘Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h
self’ than to assume that ‘the Other’ <strong>is</strong> always overseas” <strong>and</strong> that the “four-nations’
model of Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h national ident<strong>it</strong>y … ignores Cornwall or conflates <strong>it</strong>s alter<strong>it</strong>y w<strong>it</strong>h
Engl<strong>is</strong>hness”. 48
Th<strong>is</strong> fluid<strong>it</strong>y <strong>is</strong> also apparent in the work of Robin Cohen, who has made a strong plea for
the contingency of ident<strong>it</strong>ies, constantly created <strong>and</strong> re-created along their “fuzzy edges”,
where the self meets the “Other”. For him, “the shape <strong>and</strong> edges of Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y are
thus h<strong>is</strong>torically changing, often vague <strong>and</strong>, to a degree, malleable”. 49 One of the fuzzy
frontiers of <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> <strong>is</strong> the “Celtic fringe … a familiar but inexplic<strong>it</strong> internal
boundary. For the Engl<strong>is</strong>h, the boundary <strong>is</strong> marked by irresolution, uncertainty,
incongru<strong>it</strong>y, derogation or humour”. 50 Th<strong>is</strong> irresolution can <strong>be</strong> illustrated by Bernard
Crick’s reaction when d<strong>is</strong>cussing foreign hotel reg<strong>is</strong>ters <strong>and</strong> their meaning for the concept
of national<strong>it</strong>y. Crick wrote “once I read ‘Corn<strong>is</strong>h’ but I suspected, correctly, that <strong>it</strong> was a
wag <strong>and</strong> not a nut”. 51 Corn<strong>is</strong>h claims for national status cannot <strong>be</strong> conveniently squared
w<strong>it</strong>h a categorical closure that views Cornwall as a county. Internal self-representations
simply <strong>be</strong>come m<strong>is</strong>taken in the face of external images; counties just cannot <strong>be</strong> nations.
Cornwall thus <strong>be</strong>comes an “inconvenient periphery” like Northern Irel<strong>and</strong>, or even an
embarrassing periphery, repudiating <strong>it</strong>s apparently clear contemporary categor<strong>is</strong>ation. 52
But for many h<strong>is</strong>torians <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> the Celtic dimension that makes Cornwall different from
Engl<strong>is</strong>h regions - “the Corn<strong>is</strong>h are fortunate to <strong>be</strong> able to paint their regional d<strong>is</strong>contents
in the attractive colours of Celtic trad<strong>it</strong>ion, which makes them so much more viable”. 53
From th<strong>is</strong> viewpoint the survival of a Celtic-speaking population in the south west until
the end of the eighteenth century guaranteed that Cornwall “remains the one part of
Engl<strong>and</strong> where not all indigenous inhab<strong>it</strong>ants automatically descri<strong>be</strong> themselves as
9

‘Engl<strong>is</strong>h’”. 54 Yet genuine uncertainty <strong>is</strong> provoked by the lack of the common markers of
Celtic ethnic<strong>it</strong>y – such as a widely spoken Celtic language or <strong>high</strong>ly v<strong>is</strong>ible national<strong>is</strong>t
pol<strong>it</strong>ical activ<strong>it</strong>ies. Even those academics who equate the Corn<strong>is</strong>h w<strong>it</strong>h the h<strong>is</strong>toric
nations of Europe tend to view “the Corn<strong>is</strong>h problem” as one of explaining the absence of
national<strong>is</strong>m rather than the presence of a d<strong>is</strong>tinct ident<strong>it</strong>y. 55 To sum up, ne<strong>it</strong>her
Anglocentric nor Celtic h<strong>is</strong>torical perspectives adequately d<strong>is</strong>tingu<strong>is</strong>h <strong>be</strong>tween the
articulate expression of a minor<strong>it</strong>y twentieth century Corn<strong>is</strong>h national<strong>is</strong>m <strong>and</strong> a less
articulate popular Corn<strong>is</strong>hness. Moreover, the adoption of over-simpl<strong>is</strong>tic binary
county/nation, national<strong>is</strong>m/Corn<strong>is</strong>hness approaches to Cornwall prevent a fuller
underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the ident<strong>it</strong>y of th<strong>is</strong> Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h region.
Transcending the county/nation binary? A regional perspective.
If ne<strong>it</strong>her county nor nation offer entirely convincing categories w<strong>it</strong>hin which to read the
Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y, <strong>is</strong> “region” a more helpful concept? Kevin Morgan argues that through a
regional perspective we can <strong>be</strong>tter underst<strong>and</strong> “the manifold l<strong>and</strong>scapes of culture <strong>and</strong>
society [<strong>and</strong>] the divergent economic fortunes, which const<strong>it</strong>ute the fractured character of
Engl<strong>and</strong> today”. 56 However, if Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h regional<strong>is</strong>m has <strong>be</strong>en “the dog that never
barked” 57 then Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h regional h<strong>is</strong>tory has <strong>be</strong>en barely able to ra<strong>is</strong>e a whimper.
Marshall’s call for “empiric<strong>is</strong>ts of imagination” to wr<strong>it</strong>e a new regional h<strong>is</strong>tory in Br<strong>it</strong>ain
has not struck a chord as Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h regional h<strong>is</strong>torians remain overly focused on an
empirical description of changing patterns of life rather than the more d<strong>is</strong>cursive
formation <strong>and</strong> re-formation of regional ident<strong>it</strong>ies. 58 Nonetheless, regional h<strong>is</strong>torians <strong>now</strong>
accept the conclusion long reached by geographers that regions are not pregiven; instead
they are “condensations of nations, inst<strong>it</strong>utions <strong>and</strong> objects that are constantly shifting in
response to internal <strong>and</strong> external forces <strong>and</strong> to their changing construction in
geographical imaginations”. 59 Th<strong>is</strong> leads to a recogn<strong>it</strong>ion that regions can <strong>be</strong> recast
according to the defin<strong>it</strong>ions adopted <strong>and</strong> scales preferred. 60 Yet there remains a tension in
practice <strong>be</strong>tween a theoretical recogn<strong>it</strong>ion of divers<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> empirical studies of Engl<strong>is</strong>h
regions, which almost invariably adopt as their template the Engl<strong>is</strong>h planning regions,
<strong>now</strong> home of the peak regional inst<strong>it</strong>utions - Regional Development Agencies, Regional
Assemblies <strong>and</strong> Government Offices. Cornwall, containing around a tenth of the
10

population of the Engl<strong>is</strong>h “South West” region, <strong>is</strong> usually ignored in such analys<strong>is</strong>. The
actual Engl<strong>is</strong>h regional<strong>is</strong>t project does not just reinforce Cornwall’s lack of v<strong>is</strong>ibil<strong>it</strong>y in
the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h mosaic: <strong>it</strong> presents a considerable challenge to those who ins<strong>is</strong>t on defining
their Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y as a national one. 61
Celia Applegate, in her wide–ranging <strong>and</strong> comprehensive synthes<strong>is</strong> of the regional
h<strong>is</strong>toriography of the late twentieth century, identified three directions for regional
research; work that gives prior<strong>it</strong>y to society, to ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> to terr<strong>it</strong>ory. 62 But, while
there has <strong>be</strong>en an explosion of work on national ident<strong>it</strong>ies w<strong>it</strong>hin the UK l<strong>it</strong>tle has
emerged on regional ident<strong>it</strong>ies <strong>and</strong> <strong>what</strong> has emerged <strong>is</strong> significantly confined to the
north of Engl<strong>and</strong>. 63 Applegate’s main insight <strong>is</strong> to reinstate the role of terr<strong>it</strong>ory. Pointing
out that regions are not things but “sets of practices” or “cogn<strong>it</strong>ive structures”, they are
nonetheless related intimately to place <strong>and</strong> geography. Regional h<strong>is</strong>torians therefore need
“to incorporate considerations of space <strong>and</strong> scale, of the physical<strong>it</strong>y of places, in our
attempt to underst<strong>and</strong> the role of regions”. Regions are malleable but also grounded on
actual terr<strong>it</strong>ories <strong>and</strong> h<strong>is</strong>tories, the language of hybrid<strong>it</strong>y <strong>be</strong>ing in tension w<strong>it</strong>h a tendency
to closure. If regions have their h<strong>is</strong>tory then attention ought to <strong>be</strong> transferred from the
region to the processes through which regions are created, to the “regimes of
regional<strong>it</strong>ies, ways of making <strong>and</strong> unmaking the peripheral relative to the core”. 64 Th<strong>is</strong>
approach links back to the role Jenkins gives to categorization, regions <strong>be</strong>ing seen as the
product of “power geometries”, part of those “struggles over classification …to impose
the leg<strong>it</strong>imate defin<strong>it</strong>ion of the div<strong>is</strong>ions of the social world”, the outcome of which <strong>is</strong>
never finally achieved but always subject to rev<strong>is</strong>ion. 65 If regions obtain their ident<strong>it</strong>y as
named places through the contingency of h<strong>is</strong>tory, then a h<strong>is</strong>torical perspective <strong>is</strong>
necessary if we w<strong>is</strong>h to un<strong>it</strong>e the changing construction of regions w<strong>it</strong>h the bounded part
of the world to which the regional description refers, combining the h<strong>is</strong>torical
contingency of regions w<strong>it</strong>h their d<strong>is</strong>crete material making <strong>and</strong> unmaking.
Surpr<strong>is</strong>ingly, Applegate fails to c<strong>it</strong>e Anssi Paasi’s model of the inst<strong>it</strong>utional<strong>is</strong>ation of
regions. Paasi offers a diachronic model, proposing that terr<strong>it</strong>ories are categorized in four,
overlapping stages. 66 They are named <strong>and</strong> given boundaries in the first stage, that of
11

conceptual shaping. During the second, symbolic shaping, symbols are attached to places.
Thirdly, inst<strong>it</strong>utional shaping endows places w<strong>it</strong>h inst<strong>it</strong>utions. Finally, a terr<strong>it</strong>ory takes <strong>it</strong>s
place in turn in the wider society’s regional underst<strong>and</strong>ing, obtaining <strong>it</strong>s status in a spatial
categorization. At various points in th<strong>is</strong> process narratives <strong>and</strong> d<strong>is</strong>courses come into play.
Thus for example, narratives of the region emerge during <strong>it</strong>s symbolic shaping, while
terr<strong>it</strong>orial d<strong>is</strong>courses, perhaps having their origin in other places, are a constraining factor
in the fourth stage. Paasi’s model allows us to think through both the formation of regions
as named, bounded terr<strong>it</strong>ories <strong>and</strong> the meaning that places have for people. It brings
together <strong>is</strong>sues of socio-economic power w<strong>it</strong>h narratives of place. Nonetheless, <strong>it</strong> has
only rarely <strong>be</strong>en adopted explic<strong>it</strong>ly in work on Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h regions. 67 But Paasi says l<strong>it</strong>tle in
practice about how symbols <strong>be</strong>come linked in ident<strong>it</strong>y d<strong>is</strong>courses <strong>and</strong> how d<strong>is</strong>courses <strong>and</strong>
narratives of the region relate to other terr<strong>it</strong>orial d<strong>is</strong>courses at other scales. Th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong>
particularly problematic during the stage of symbolic shaping. Can any symbols <strong>be</strong>
appropriated <strong>and</strong> attached to any place? Are there constraints to the invention of
trad<strong>it</strong>ion? In th<strong>is</strong> respect Paasi’s approach needs to <strong>be</strong> supplemented by a more
h<strong>is</strong>torically sens<strong>it</strong>ive approach.
Such an approach <strong>is</strong> provided by Anthony Sm<strong>it</strong>h’s ethno-symbol<strong>is</strong>m, which allows us to
pay more attention to the “cultural stuff” – the h<strong>is</strong>torical myths <strong>and</strong> memories - involved
in ident<strong>it</strong>y formation. 68 Sm<strong>it</strong>h states that <strong>be</strong>fore nations there were ethnies or ethnic
commun<strong>it</strong>ies, defined by him as “named human populations w<strong>it</strong>h shared ancestry myths,
h<strong>is</strong>tories <strong>and</strong> cultures, having an association w<strong>it</strong>h a specific terr<strong>it</strong>ory, <strong>and</strong> a sense of
solidar<strong>it</strong>y”. 69 These arose out of ethnic categories through the construction of “ethnoh<strong>is</strong>tories”,
cultural resources that included a matrix of myths of ancestry, symbols <strong>and</strong>
memories associated w<strong>it</strong>h a particular terr<strong>it</strong>ory. Ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tories provide the cultural
resources out of which modern nations are imagined <strong>and</strong> from which trad<strong>it</strong>ions are
“invented”. Although Sm<strong>it</strong>h’s concern <strong>is</strong> w<strong>it</strong>h the long roots of modern nations <strong>and</strong>
national<strong>is</strong>m a host of ethnies ex<strong>is</strong>ted in the past which never acquired the status of nation.
It <strong>is</strong> my contention here that the Corn<strong>is</strong>h can productively <strong>be</strong> viewed as an example of a
people who created their own ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory but were unable <strong>and</strong>/or unwilling to
transform themselves into a nation, partly <strong>be</strong>cause of the claims of a competing Engl<strong>is</strong>h
12

ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory. Others have pointed out how h<strong>is</strong>torical memories structured contemporary
imaginations in Cornwall - in the nineteenth century “the Corn<strong>is</strong>h … <strong>could</strong> recall that
they were descended from Celts”. 70 The remainder of th<strong>is</strong> article explores how such
memories arose <strong>and</strong> the implications they have for the modern Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y.
Shaping terr<strong>it</strong>ory <strong>and</strong> people
Cornwall acquired <strong>it</strong>s terr<strong>it</strong>orial shape early. Place names suggest the presence of a
cultural border near the River Tamar, approximating to the modern eastern boundary of
Cornwall, “probably at about the eighth to the tenth or eleventh centuries”. 71 The name
the Engl<strong>is</strong>h first used for th<strong>is</strong> terr<strong>it</strong>ory was West Wales but by the ninth century
“Cornwall” had come into use. 72 Meanwhile <strong>it</strong> was k<strong>now</strong>n to the Welsh as Cerniu, a
name that in Corn<strong>is</strong>h had <strong>be</strong>come Ker<strong>now</strong> by the medieval period. 73 But peoples acquire
names as well as terr<strong>it</strong>ories. As R.R.Davies states names are “basic to a sense of
communal ident<strong>it</strong>y; they are redolent of memories <strong>and</strong> aspirations”. 74 In the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle the relentless catalogue of battles speaks of skirm<strong>is</strong>hes w<strong>it</strong>h the Br<strong>it</strong>ons. The
adjective “Corn<strong>is</strong>h” for the people living in the terr<strong>it</strong>ory of the West Welsh must have
<strong>be</strong>en adopted some<strong>what</strong> after “Cornwall” had <strong>be</strong>come the preferred name, possibly in the
tenth century. Whatever their prec<strong>is</strong>e genealogy, both terr<strong>it</strong>ory <strong>and</strong> people were named
relatively early <strong>and</strong> not much later than the naming of the Engl<strong>is</strong>h who had “sorted out
their nomenclature earliest”. 75 What <strong>is</strong> less certain <strong>is</strong> whether the descriptor “Corn<strong>is</strong>h”
was applied to all those who lived in the terr<strong>it</strong>ory of Cornwall or just to those who spoke
the Corn<strong>is</strong>h language. A greetings clause at Truro in 1173 implies the latter, referring to
“all men both Corn<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Engl<strong>is</strong>h”, while in the 1150s Earl Reginald at Launceston was
addressing h<strong>is</strong> men as “French, Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Welsh [i.e. Corn<strong>is</strong>h]”. 76 Th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> evidence that
the Corn<strong>is</strong>h were seen as h<strong>is</strong>toric kin of the Welsh <strong>and</strong> as a d<strong>is</strong>tinct people into the later
twelfth century, at a time when R.R.Davies has claimed that the Engl<strong>is</strong>h no longer needed
multiple address clauses, having succeeded in making Engl<strong>and</strong> the “l<strong>and</strong> of the
Engl<strong>is</strong>h”. 77 If th<strong>is</strong> was so then Cornwall <strong>and</strong> the Corn<strong>is</strong>h were still regarded as something
other than Engl<strong>is</strong>h at th<strong>is</strong> point.
13

Myths of origin <strong>and</strong> sacred places
Once equipped w<strong>it</strong>h a name, Cornwall <strong>could</strong> <strong>be</strong>gin to <strong>be</strong> shaped symbolically. In add<strong>it</strong>ion
to the acqu<strong>is</strong><strong>it</strong>ion of a collective name, Sm<strong>it</strong>h descri<strong>be</strong>s the main components of th<strong>is</strong>
shaping as a myth of ancestry, tracing the collective group back to a single origin, <strong>and</strong>
h<strong>is</strong>torical memories. 78 In the myth of origin popular<strong>is</strong>ed by Geoffrey of Monmouth’s
H<strong>is</strong>toria Regum Br<strong>it</strong>anniae in the twelfth century, Br<strong>it</strong>ain was settled by Brutus, who
arrived from Troy <strong>and</strong> divided the <strong>is</strong>l<strong>and</strong> <strong>be</strong>tween h<strong>is</strong> three sons who ruled <strong>what</strong> later
<strong>be</strong>came Engl<strong>and</strong>, Scotl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales. However, Brutus was also accompanied by h<strong>is</strong>
kinsman Corineus who was given the l<strong>and</strong> of Cornwall. In Geoffrey’s account, Cornwall
therefore possessed a d<strong>is</strong>tinct location, outside the tripart<strong>it</strong>e realm of Br<strong>it</strong>ain. 79 By the
nineteenth century Corineus had <strong>be</strong>en supplanted in the popular imagination by a
different myth of Med<strong>it</strong>erranean origins: from the Phoenicians, who were attracted to
Cornwall by the lure of tin. 80
Th<strong>is</strong> co-ex<strong>is</strong>ted w<strong>it</strong>h a self-image as “Br<strong>it</strong>ons” or “ancient Br<strong>it</strong>ons”. While the Welsh
remained conscious of their Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h inher<strong>it</strong>ance into the seventeenth century, 81 there <strong>is</strong>
less evidence for a similar <strong>be</strong>lief in Cornwall. Such an underst<strong>and</strong>ing may well have <strong>be</strong>en
current w<strong>it</strong>hin a Corn<strong>is</strong>h language culture. However, in a some<strong>what</strong> obscure process, the
Corn<strong>is</strong>h language had d<strong>is</strong>appeared from eastern Cornwall <strong>be</strong>fore the Black Death. It then
stabil<strong>is</strong>ed for two centuries or more, w<strong>it</strong>h a north-south dividing line in mid-Cornwall
<strong>be</strong>tween mainly Corn<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> mainly Engl<strong>is</strong>h-speaking areas. 82 But the num<strong>be</strong>r of Corn<strong>is</strong>h
speakers declined after the Reformation <strong>and</strong> any awareness of Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h origins w<strong>it</strong>hin that
culture was then lost to the h<strong>is</strong>torical record. Wr<strong>it</strong>ten evidence for a pride in a Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h
background first appeared in the manuscript compiled by the east Corn<strong>is</strong>h l<strong>and</strong>owner,
William Scawen, completed late in h<strong>is</strong> life around 1685. 83 That he may not have <strong>be</strong>en a
lone voice <strong>is</strong> suggested by a letter from William Borlase, Cornwall’s pre-eminent
eighteenth century natural<strong>is</strong>t <strong>and</strong> antiquarian, to Thomas Tonkin in 1730. Borlase warned
Tonkin that h<strong>is</strong> <strong>be</strong>lief that he had found Roman remains in Cornwall led him to run the
r<strong>is</strong>k he “will incur the severe censure of some Antient Br<strong>it</strong>ons who value themselves
above all things, like their brethren in Wales, upon their never having <strong>be</strong>en overcome by
the Romans”. 84 In the nineteenth century, we have more evidence for the adoption of the
14

t<strong>it</strong>le “Br<strong>it</strong>ons” or “ancient Br<strong>it</strong>ons”. By the 1850s some were prepared to descri<strong>be</strong> the
Corn<strong>is</strong>h as “Cornu-Br<strong>it</strong>ons, that small but strongly character<strong>is</strong>ed Celtic people”. 85
Tellingly, reports of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h asserting their superior<strong>it</strong>y as “sons of ancient Br<strong>it</strong>ons”
<strong>and</strong> pub names such as “The Ancient Br<strong>it</strong>on” in South Australia in the 1850s imply the
strength of th<strong>is</strong> myth, transplanted to Australia by the emigrants. 86
In the 1860s the Corn<strong>is</strong>h middle classes red<strong>is</strong>covered their Celtic roots. An
archaeological paper in the Journal of the Royal Inst<strong>it</strong>ution of Cornwall led to a
communication from the Cambrian Society in Wales. Enthused by th<strong>is</strong>, the mem<strong>be</strong>rs of
the Royal Inst<strong>it</strong>ution, Cornwall’s major l<strong>it</strong>erary inst<strong>it</strong>ution, rushed to sign up as Celts:
“we are here at the utmost verge of the Celtic system; we want to connect our local
antiqu<strong>it</strong>ies w<strong>it</strong>h the antiqu<strong>it</strong>ies of other Celtic tri<strong>be</strong>s” stated their President, Charles
Barham. 87 But not everyone was so keen. Unsure about <strong>be</strong>ing classed w<strong>it</strong>h Welsh <strong>and</strong>
Bretons, another President in 1863 re-affirmed that “<strong>it</strong> was from contact <strong>and</strong>
communication w<strong>it</strong>h Phoenician civil<strong>is</strong>ation, then the most advanced in the world, that
the ancient inhab<strong>it</strong>ants of Cornwall were ra<strong>is</strong>ed above the level of other Celtic tri<strong>be</strong>s”. 88
However, whether ancient Br<strong>it</strong>on, Celt or from Med<strong>it</strong>erranean influence, the myth of
origin remained one that set the Corn<strong>is</strong>h in a non-Engl<strong>is</strong>h frame <strong>and</strong> emphas<strong>is</strong>ed their
separate origins.
Myths of origin are one resource for an ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory; others include the role of “sacred
places”, places that hold a special memory for the ethnie. One such sacred place in
Corn<strong>is</strong>h memory has <strong>be</strong>en the River Tamar, w<strong>it</strong>h <strong>it</strong>s boundary function <strong>be</strong>tween Cornwall
<strong>and</strong> not-Cornwall. Another <strong>is</strong> Tintagel, taking on new meaning in the post-Galfridian era,
after Geoffrey of Monmouth made Cornwall the l<strong>and</strong> of Arthur. 89 But Arthur was already
an entrenched part of Corn<strong>is</strong>h folklore <strong>be</strong>fore Geoffrey’s “Matter of Br<strong>it</strong>ain” <strong>and</strong>
Arthurian references informed Corn<strong>is</strong>h culture for hundreds of years, the recently red<strong>is</strong>covered
Corn<strong>is</strong>h saints” play of the early sixteenth century, Bewnans Ke, containing
w<strong>it</strong>hin <strong>it</strong> an Arthurian theme. 90 What Geoffrey of Monmouth did was attach the
Arthurian myth more securely to the s<strong>it</strong>e of Tintagel, which archaeological research
reveals as a power centre of sixth century <strong>and</strong> possibly Roman Cornwall. 91 It was the lure
15

of Arthur that provoked Earl Richard of Cornwall to build a gr<strong>and</strong>iose castle there in the
1230s to symbol<strong>is</strong>e h<strong>is</strong> association w<strong>it</strong>h th<strong>is</strong> sacred place. The appearance of Geoffrey’s
H<strong>is</strong>toria may also have caused Cornwall’s el<strong>it</strong>e to re-assess their Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h origins. Th<strong>is</strong> at
least <strong>is</strong> the opinion of Hugh Thomas, who notes that John of Cornwall, author of an
independent version of the prophecies of Merlin, had a sense of <strong>be</strong>ing a Br<strong>it</strong>on, d<strong>is</strong>tinct
from the Engl<strong>is</strong>h. 92 “Only in Cornwall, where there were lingu<strong>is</strong>tic <strong>and</strong> perhaps other
cultural features that made Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> a connection to Geoffrey’s past
<strong>be</strong>lievable, did Geoffrey have any influence on ident<strong>it</strong>y, by shoring up <strong>and</strong> reshaping an
ethnic ident<strong>it</strong>y that already ex<strong>is</strong>ted”. 93 Geoffrey’s work may thus have stimulated a late
twelfth century Corn<strong>is</strong>h el<strong>it</strong>e to re-identify themselves w<strong>it</strong>h their <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> in a similar
way to that in which an el<strong>it</strong>e Scott<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y appeared in the aftermath of the battle of
Bannockburn. 94
Golden ages <strong>and</strong> h<strong>is</strong>torical memories
Other memories sustained a Corn<strong>is</strong>h sense of difference after the tenth century. In late
medieval Cornwall, saints’ cults were unusual in their origin. Considerably more saints in
Cornwall were unique Br<strong>it</strong>tonic figures (e<strong>it</strong>her Breton, Welsh, Ir<strong>is</strong>h or local saints). As
late as the fifteenth <strong>and</strong> sixteenth centuries the Ir<strong>is</strong>h rather than Engl<strong>is</strong>h context of saints’
lives indicated a pers<strong>is</strong>ting “consciousness of a separate Celtic her<strong>it</strong>age”. 95 Even after the
Reformation, the trad<strong>it</strong>ion of the saints lingered on “more tenaciously” in Cornwall, even
into the eighteenth century. W<strong>it</strong>h the decline of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h language after the midsixteenth
century such h<strong>is</strong>torical memories faded, but they were never entirely eclipsed,
<strong>and</strong> remained as resources to <strong>be</strong> re-appropriated by the antiquarians of the eighteenth <strong>and</strong>
nineteenth centuries.
H<strong>is</strong>torical memories were by then <strong>be</strong>ing replen<strong>is</strong>hed by the shared experience of
industrial<strong>is</strong>ation. In the eighteenth century r<strong>is</strong>ing dem<strong>and</strong> for Corn<strong>is</strong>h copper inaugurated
a precocious early industrial<strong>is</strong>ation. 96 W<strong>it</strong>hin half a century west Cornwall had <strong>be</strong>en
transformed into one of Europe’s early industrial regions, by the 1780s capable of
spawning “one of the most heavily cap<strong>it</strong>al<strong>is</strong>t enterpr<strong>is</strong>es [the Corn<strong>is</strong>h Copper Metal
Company] in the whole of the eighteenth century economy”. 97 During the first half of the
16

nineteenth century the mining economy spread <strong>it</strong>s tentacles into mid <strong>and</strong> east Cornwall so
that at <strong>it</strong>s height in the 1860s the industrial region was virtually synonymous w<strong>it</strong>h the
h<strong>is</strong>toric terr<strong>it</strong>ory. The cr<strong>it</strong>ical role that Cornwall had played at the forefront of modern<strong>it</strong>y
as a test<strong>be</strong>d for the early development of steam engine technology <strong>be</strong>fore the 1840s added
to a renewed regional pride. 98 Meanwhile, industrial<strong>is</strong>ation reinforced the geography of
Corn<strong>is</strong>hness, at <strong>it</strong>s most intense in the formerly Corn<strong>is</strong>h-speaking west. It was here
where, in the 1850s, “the thorough Corn<strong>is</strong>hman’s respect for h<strong>is</strong> own shrewdness <strong>and</strong> that
of h<strong>is</strong> clan <strong>is</strong> unbounded, or only equalled by h<strong>is</strong> profound contempt for ‘foreigners’ from
the east … th<strong>is</strong> feeling increases ludicrously as we advance further west”. 99 It was here
too that v<strong>is</strong><strong>it</strong>ors observed that “a man speaks of himself as Corn<strong>is</strong>h in much the same way
as a Welshman speaks of himself as Welsh”. 100 The contingent factor of mineral geology
underpinned the moral geography of Corn<strong>is</strong>hness, while simultaneously reshaping the
shared experiences of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h.
Cornwall’s mar<strong>it</strong>ime location <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong>s leading role in metal mining meant that <strong>it</strong>s labour
force was in dem<strong>and</strong> on the mining frontier of the New World. The emigration that had
<strong>be</strong>gun by the 1840s turned into a mass exodus when the mining industry <strong>be</strong>gan to
contract after the 1860s. An emigration culture in the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Isles second only to the Ir<strong>is</strong>h
<strong>and</strong> the Scots Highl<strong>and</strong>ers produced a brief period of international Corn<strong>is</strong>hness in the last
quarter of the century as people moved freely <strong>be</strong>tween North America, South Africa <strong>and</strong>
Australia. 101 But pride soon gave way to mounting doubts. In 1900, J.H.Collins, a prolific
wr<strong>it</strong>er on mining affairs, reported gloomily that “a Corn<strong>is</strong>h correspondent in Colorado
suggests that the Corn<strong>is</strong>h character <strong>is</strong> <strong>it</strong>self deteriorating … owing to the fact that her
more enterpr<strong>is</strong>ing sons have <strong>be</strong>en emigrating for many years past”. 102 Simultaneously, a
regional l<strong>it</strong>erature <strong>be</strong>gan to associate emigration w<strong>it</strong>h loss <strong>and</strong> nostalgia. 103 A sense of
industrial pride was soon overlain by memories of industrial dereliction, shattered
commun<strong>it</strong>ies, poverty <strong>and</strong> an unstoppable haemorrhage of young migrants. But even in
the heyday of the industrial region, when the scale of emigration <strong>and</strong> the collapse of the
mining industry were unforeseeable, Cornwall’s de facto nineteenth century anthem
preferred to look away from <strong>it</strong>s staple industry <strong>and</strong> back to earlier h<strong>is</strong>torical memories. In
1825 Ro<strong>be</strong>rt Stephen Hawker’s “Song of the Western Men”, popularly k<strong>now</strong>n as
17

“Trelawny”, was publ<strong>is</strong>hed, <strong>it</strong>s words linking the impr<strong>is</strong>onment of B<strong>is</strong>hop Jonathan
Trelawny by James II in 1688 to contemporary anti-Catholic<strong>is</strong>m. 104 W<strong>it</strong>hin a generation
“Trelawny” was <strong>be</strong>ing descri<strong>be</strong>d as “a soul stirring patriotic <strong>and</strong> favour<strong>it</strong>e song”, while
the Corn<strong>is</strong>h were claimed to revere Trelawny as a “demigod” on a par w<strong>it</strong>h King
Arthur. 105 Fuelled by a context of industrial pride, “Trelawny” resonated w<strong>it</strong>h other
golden ages. As the “golden age” of Corn<strong>is</strong>h mining turned out to <strong>be</strong> d<strong>is</strong>appointingly
transient, a local intelligentsia w<strong>is</strong>hing to foster a Corn<strong>is</strong>h national pride turned instead to
earlier defeats <strong>and</strong> setbacks.
Creating an ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory
Sm<strong>it</strong>h has d<strong>is</strong>tingu<strong>is</strong>hed different types of ‘golden age’. For example some may <strong>be</strong> “ages
of hero<strong>is</strong>m”, some “ages of creativ<strong>it</strong>y”. 106 The eighteenth <strong>and</strong> early nineteenth century
industrial<strong>is</strong>ation was an “age of creativ<strong>it</strong>y”, although <strong>it</strong> also produced <strong>it</strong>s heroes, such as
the engineer Richard Trev<strong>it</strong>hick. In contrast, the h<strong>is</strong>torical memories that were dusted
down after the civil wars of the seventeenth century centred on the tenth <strong>and</strong> sixteenth
centuries, both periods of heroic defeat. In 1685 William Scawen contrasted the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h
w<strong>it</strong>h their pagan “oppressors”, the former “forced … to fly into Wales <strong>and</strong> Cornwall”. 107
Almost a century later Borlase echoed th<strong>is</strong> by remem<strong>be</strong>ring Cornwall’s status as “a
d<strong>is</strong>tinct principal<strong>it</strong>y until the tenth century”, when Athelstan”s pol<strong>it</strong>ical changes marked
“so considerable an alteration in the circumstances of Cornwall … from th<strong>is</strong> time
therefore we are to consider Cornwall under the Saxon yoke … after the Corn<strong>is</strong>h Br<strong>it</strong>ons
had maintain’d a perpetual struggle against the Saxons, for the full space of 500
years”. 108 Samuel Drew, the son of a tinner/farmer from mid-Cornwall <strong>and</strong> Cornwall’s
first Method<strong>is</strong>t h<strong>is</strong>torian, constructed a recogn<strong>is</strong>ably proto-national h<strong>is</strong>tory out of th<strong>is</strong> in
the 1820s. Athelstan had fin<strong>is</strong>hed
the conquest of Cornwall … Th<strong>is</strong> was a stroke which proved at once
both fatal <strong>and</strong> final to the independence of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h. Th<strong>is</strong>, amidst all
the struggles that Cornwall made to preserve her li<strong>be</strong>rty untainted, <strong>and</strong>
that her enemies made to rob her of that inestimable jewel, th<strong>is</strong> was the
first subjugation of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h by the Engl<strong>is</strong>h. 109
18

While the events of the tenth century were reconstructed unambiguously as a “conquest”,
there was more difficulty dealing w<strong>it</strong>h a second “golden age”, that of the r<strong>is</strong>ings of 1497
<strong>and</strong> 1549. Scawen was ambivalent about 1497, when a r<strong>is</strong>ing had <strong>be</strong>gun in west Cornwall
<strong>and</strong> reached the gates of London to meet <strong>it</strong>s nemes<strong>is</strong> at Blackheath, only to <strong>be</strong> followed
w<strong>it</strong>hin months by a second r<strong>is</strong>ing in support of the Pretender, Perkin War<strong>be</strong>ck. Scawen
expressed h<strong>is</strong> shame to think of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h siding w<strong>it</strong>h a “counterfe<strong>it</strong>”, but nevertheless
claimed that “in their march (which was a long one) to Black-heath, there was no spoil
done, nor any complaint made”. 110 Drew linked th<strong>is</strong> struggle back to their Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h
inher<strong>it</strong>ance: “The Corn<strong>is</strong>h, who had not yet wholly lost that spir<strong>it</strong> of daring independence
which their Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h forefathers had transm<strong>it</strong>ted to them”. 111 There was considerably more
hes<strong>it</strong>ation, however, about the Prayer Book re<strong>be</strong>llion of 1549, one “instigated by the
priests”, the result of “ignorance <strong>and</strong> superst<strong>it</strong>ion” <strong>and</strong> a “fury of bigotry”. 112 Oppos<strong>it</strong>ion
to the Prayer Book <strong>and</strong> by implication the Reformation were not to the taste of Protestant
nineteenth century Corn<strong>is</strong>h wr<strong>it</strong>ers. And yet the echoes of 1549, when a largely Corn<strong>is</strong>h
force laid siege to Exeter for several weeks, <strong>could</strong> later <strong>be</strong> heard in the words of
“Trelawny”.
In the late twentieth century there was more willingness to link 1549 to the earlier r<strong>is</strong>ings
<strong>and</strong> to Cornwall’s Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h her<strong>it</strong>age in order to create a more unambiguous golden age, to
re-root the Corn<strong>is</strong>h in their own h<strong>is</strong>toric space. 113 Corn<strong>is</strong>h national<strong>is</strong>ts have <strong>be</strong>en eager to
re-interpret 1549 as a national upr<strong>is</strong>ing rather than a conservative religious re<strong>be</strong>llion. 114
And they have not <strong>be</strong>en alone. In a series of articles <strong>and</strong> books Mark Stoyle has argued
that both the 1549 r<strong>is</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> the enthusiastic Corn<strong>is</strong>h involvement on the Royal<strong>is</strong>t side in
the seventeenth century was the continuation of the “old Corn<strong>is</strong>h dreams of autonomy
<strong>and</strong> semi-independence” <strong>and</strong> part of a “quasi-national struggle for their own defence”. 115
Here <strong>is</strong> a more explic<strong>it</strong> interpretation of a “golden age” of heroic res<strong>is</strong>tance to Engl<strong>is</strong>h
cultural domination.
However, notions of “quasi-national struggles” <strong>and</strong> “old dreams of autonomy” owe more
to modern<strong>is</strong>t assumptions about nations <strong>and</strong> national<strong>is</strong>m than to actual evidence from the
early modern period. No explic<strong>it</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>s for independence or autonomy appeared in the
19

<strong>is</strong>ings of 1497 or 1549 <strong>and</strong> even the complaint that many Corn<strong>is</strong>h <strong>could</strong> not read the
Engl<strong>is</strong>h of the new Prayer Book was relegated to a minor place in the l<strong>is</strong>t of dem<strong>and</strong>s
made by the Prayer Book re<strong>be</strong>ls, while an earlier call for a Corn<strong>is</strong>h l<strong>it</strong>urgy seems to have
d<strong>is</strong>appeared. 116 Rather than oppos<strong>it</strong>ion to the association w<strong>it</strong>h Engl<strong>and</strong>, the Corn<strong>is</strong>h
reaction in the first half of the Tudor century has <strong>be</strong>en read as “arguments about the terms
of association”, arguments eventually settled on the terms of the royal government. 117
There were in any case many other factors involved in the Tudor r<strong>is</strong>ings - anger at
taxation, dynastic <strong>is</strong>sues, squabbles <strong>be</strong>tween local gentry, religious conservat<strong>is</strong>m - as well
as many other actors from <strong>be</strong>yond Cornwall. While the construction of an ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory
dem<strong>and</strong>s these are seen as a “golden age” of the defeat of a whole people, there <strong>is</strong> a <strong>high</strong>
probabil<strong>it</strong>y that they were not seen as such at the time, when ethnic ident<strong>it</strong>ies may well
have played second fiddle to other ident<strong>it</strong>ies, especially religious ones. 118
The work of the mil<strong>it</strong>ant antiquarian local<strong>is</strong>ts of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries
forged the resources for a rich ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory for the Corn<strong>is</strong>h, fusing a set of myths <strong>and</strong>
symbols w<strong>it</strong>h selective h<strong>is</strong>torical memories. However, three factors help to explain why
th<strong>is</strong> ethnie did not <strong>be</strong>come a national<strong>it</strong>y. First, the ubiqu<strong>it</strong>ous presence of the monarchy
across the centuries goes a long way to explain the paradoxes <strong>and</strong> uncertainties of the
Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y. The major<strong>it</strong>y of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h gentry threw their support <strong>be</strong>hind the
Crown in 1642. Th<strong>is</strong> developed into <strong>what</strong> Stoyle terms the “Corn<strong>is</strong>h Royal<strong>is</strong>t
trad<strong>it</strong>ion”, 119 full-blown by the later seventeenth <strong>and</strong> early eighteenth centuries, when the
events of the 1540s were erased from the h<strong>is</strong>torical memory <strong>and</strong> those of 1642-46 put in
their place. But the presence of the royal<strong>is</strong>t trad<strong>it</strong>ion was not the only factor. The two
other elements that explain Cornwall’s ambiguous location w<strong>it</strong>hin the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h terr<strong>it</strong>orial
system - something more than a county, but not yet a nation – were the inst<strong>it</strong>utional
context of Cornwall’s regional formation <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong>s longst<strong>and</strong>ing cultural plural<strong>is</strong>m, home to
two vernacular languages – Corn<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Engl<strong>is</strong>h – <strong>and</strong> two cultural trad<strong>it</strong>ions.
The Corn<strong>is</strong>h Royal<strong>is</strong>t trad<strong>it</strong>ion
Susan Reynolds” concept of “regnal solidar<strong>it</strong>y”, 120 an ident<strong>it</strong>y looking towards a royal
author<strong>it</strong>y, <strong>is</strong> useful in unravelling the relationship in medieval Cornwall <strong>be</strong>tween
20

(Corn<strong>is</strong>h) people <strong>and</strong> (Engl<strong>is</strong>h) Crown. A regnal sentiment grew early in Engl<strong>and</strong>, one of
Europe’s most central<strong>is</strong>ed states. The Corn<strong>is</strong>h, although a d<strong>is</strong>tinct cultural group, were
contained w<strong>it</strong>hin th<strong>is</strong>, sharing a consciousness of <strong>be</strong>ing a part of the same kingdom as the
Engl<strong>is</strong>h. The contrast w<strong>it</strong>h the other “Celtic” l<strong>and</strong>s <strong>is</strong> instructive. In Scotl<strong>and</strong>, as in
Engl<strong>and</strong>, a regnal sentiment matched crown, terr<strong>it</strong>ory <strong>and</strong> peoples <strong>and</strong> was one of the
factors producing a Scott<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y. In Wales <strong>and</strong> Irel<strong>and</strong>, on the other h<strong>and</strong>, there was
no such symbios<strong>is</strong> <strong>be</strong>tween king <strong>and</strong> people, as fragmented pol<strong>it</strong>ical structures failed to
produce such an outcome. 121 But att<strong>it</strong>udes to the Tudor monarchy in early modern Wales
show that the Crown was flexible enough to encompass different languages <strong>and</strong> able to
comm<strong>and</strong> the allegiance of non-Engl<strong>is</strong>h ethnic commun<strong>it</strong>ies. 122 In Cornwall th<strong>is</strong> was also
the case – but <strong>it</strong> happened earlier.
However, the vehicle for an Engl<strong>is</strong>h regnal solidar<strong>it</strong>y in Cornwall was not the Crown
directly, but the inst<strong>it</strong>ution of the Duchy of Cornwall, establ<strong>is</strong>hed in 1337 <strong>and</strong> granting
the t<strong>it</strong>le of Duke of Cornwall to the monarch’s eldest son. The Duchy played a Janus-like
role, linking Cornwall intimately to the Crown yet at the same time providing a seductive
hint of special treatment. The presence of the Duchy has taken on special significance for
twentieth century national<strong>is</strong>ts, desperate to d<strong>is</strong>cover an inst<strong>it</strong>utional template for Corn<strong>is</strong>h
“difference”. 123 Th<strong>is</strong> has <strong>be</strong>en echoed by some h<strong>is</strong>torians. Taking h<strong>is</strong> cue from
A.L.Rowse, who character<strong>is</strong>ed <strong>it</strong> as “a l<strong>it</strong>tle government of <strong>it</strong>s own”, Philip Payton claims
that the Duchy was one factor in creating “a certain aura (<strong>and</strong> indeed real<strong>it</strong>y) of terr<strong>it</strong>orial
semi-independence”, although Julian Cornwall more cautiously descri<strong>be</strong>d the Duchy as
fostering only “the illusion of autonomy”. 124 The view of the Duchy as a significant
const<strong>it</strong>utional presence clashes w<strong>it</strong>h an alternative view of <strong>it</strong> as basically a royal estate. 125
From th<strong>is</strong> perspective the actual power of the Duchy seems more muted. 126 Unlike the
Earldom of Chester (or the Principal<strong>it</strong>y of Wales) Cornwall was subject to the king’s
courts <strong>and</strong> common law <strong>and</strong> returned MPs to the House of Commons as early as the late
thirteenth century. If quasi-palatine status <strong>is</strong> to <strong>be</strong> accorded to medieval Cornwall, <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> the
twelfth century earldom, when no accounts were rendered to the Royal Exchequer <strong>and</strong>
royal officers were excluded, that deserves <strong>it</strong> rather than the fourteenth century Duchy. 127
Moreover, the Duchy regularly reverted to the Crown in the absence of a Duke, for
21

example from 1413 to 1453, 1509 to 1537 <strong>and</strong> 1547 to 1603, admin<strong>is</strong>tered as a de facto
department of the Exchequer, even as <strong>it</strong> retained <strong>it</strong>s own structures in Cornwall. 128
Surviving the const<strong>it</strong>utional reforms of the Tudors <strong>it</strong>self suggests that <strong>it</strong> posed no threat to
the centre <strong>and</strong>, indeed, the Duchy was explo<strong>it</strong>ed more ruthlessly as a source of royal
revenue from the 1610s onwards. 129
The closely connected inst<strong>it</strong>ution of the Stannaries had a greater role in reproducing the
Corn<strong>is</strong>h Royal<strong>is</strong>t trad<strong>it</strong>ion in the sixteenth <strong>and</strong> seventeenth centuries. Th<strong>is</strong> had regulated
tin mining from early times <strong>and</strong> arose out of customary practices. A series of royal
charters from 1201 guaranteed <strong>it</strong>s li<strong>be</strong>rties in return for a regular flow of income to the
Crown, via the Duchy, from the coinage of tin. The granting of a Charter of Pardon in
1508 <strong>and</strong> the right of the tinners to govern themselves, even extending so far as
leg<strong>is</strong>lative powers <strong>and</strong> the right of veto over leg<strong>is</strong>lation from the centre, has <strong>be</strong>en seen as
another example of “semi-independence”. 130 However, theoretical rights were not
exerc<strong>is</strong>ed in practice, the full Stannary Convocation only meeting on six occasions over
two <strong>and</strong> a half centuries. There was one intriguing hint in 1750-52 that the Convocation
might have <strong>be</strong>come something else, when <strong>it</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>ed the right to adjourn <strong>it</strong>self. Yet the
dem<strong>and</strong>s reflected more the complex pol<strong>it</strong>ical d<strong>is</strong>putes of the Westminster Parliament
than explic<strong>it</strong> calls for Corn<strong>is</strong>h sovereignty. 131
Like the Duchy, <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> the myths <strong>and</strong> h<strong>is</strong>torical memories around the Stannaries rather than
<strong>it</strong>s actual practice that are more relevant to the <strong>is</strong>sue of ident<strong>it</strong>y. Cooper points out that
the “perception of the western miners that their li<strong>be</strong>rties descended directly from the
Crown”, together w<strong>it</strong>h the pervasive <strong>and</strong> overt royal symbol<strong>is</strong>m of coinage days <strong>and</strong>
coinage halls, produced a class of tinners in Cornwall loyal to the Crown but lacking
deference towards the local gentry. 132 Th<strong>is</strong> was a perfect seed<strong>be</strong>d for the conservative
re<strong>be</strong>lliousness of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Nevertheless, although both
Duchy <strong>and</strong> Stannaries served to buttress the Corn<strong>is</strong>h Royal<strong>is</strong>t trad<strong>it</strong>ion, a trad<strong>it</strong>ion that
then generated <strong>it</strong>s own “golden age” in the early years of the Civil War of the 1640s, the
prec<strong>is</strong>e meaning of a royal<strong>is</strong>m mediated through Duchy <strong>and</strong> Stannaries may still elude us.
The subtle d<strong>is</strong>tinctions involved enabled the Corn<strong>is</strong>h Royal<strong>is</strong>t trad<strong>it</strong>ion to integrate the
22

Corn<strong>is</strong>h pol<strong>it</strong>ically but pose as the defender of a particular terr<strong>it</strong>ory, <strong>it</strong>s customs <strong>and</strong>, by
implication, <strong>it</strong>s people. Furthermore, while the Corn<strong>is</strong>h Royal<strong>is</strong>t trad<strong>it</strong>ion explains the
conservative re<strong>be</strong>lliousness of the sixteenth <strong>and</strong> seventeenth centuries, <strong>it</strong> also to a degree
underlay the conservative re<strong>be</strong>lliousness of the early twentieth century Corn<strong>is</strong>h cultural
national<strong>is</strong>t movement. The Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y as <strong>it</strong> had emerged by the nineteenth century
resembled contemporary Engl<strong>is</strong>h regional ident<strong>it</strong>ies in that <strong>it</strong> was pol<strong>it</strong>ically
conservative. 133 More like the pearly kings <strong>and</strong> queens of London than the angry Fenians
of Irel<strong>and</strong>, <strong>it</strong> posed l<strong>it</strong>tle threat to ex<strong>is</strong>ting inst<strong>it</strong>utions. Corn<strong>is</strong>h antiquarian investigations
into the state of the relatively recently deceased Corn<strong>is</strong>h language <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong>s associated
folklore were enquiries heavily coloured by the tropes of <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong>, a “relational”
national<strong>is</strong>m that perfectly mirrored the contemporary s<strong>it</strong>uation in another small “Celtic”
country, the Isle of Man. 134
Inst<strong>it</strong>utional shape <strong>and</strong> hybrid narratives
John Breuilly argues that outside inst<strong>it</strong>utions, ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>is</strong> “fragmentary, d<strong>is</strong>continuous <strong>and</strong>
elusive”. 135 From the early modern period onwards the major inst<strong>it</strong>utions transm<strong>it</strong>ting
ident<strong>it</strong>y in Cornwall – local government, the courts, schools, l<strong>it</strong>erature, media – have
<strong>be</strong>en in the main carriers of an Engl<strong>is</strong>h ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory. The Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y was relegated
to the domestic sphere in the eighteenth <strong>and</strong> nineteenth centuries, while in public an
Engl<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y dominated. The contrast w<strong>it</strong>h Scotl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales <strong>is</strong> again marked.
Scotl<strong>and</strong>’s Presbyterian Church <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong>s separate legal structure, <strong>it</strong>s monarchy <strong>be</strong>fore
1601, <strong>and</strong> the threat from Engl<strong>and</strong> in the early fourteenth century all guaranteed the
maintenance of a d<strong>is</strong>tinctly Scott<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y. 136 In Wales a cultural sense of Welshness
was kept alive through the survival of the language. But in the long term <strong>it</strong> has again <strong>be</strong>en
the role of inst<strong>it</strong>utions – the Welsh Office <strong>and</strong> <strong>now</strong> the Welsh Assembly - that has
provided the Welsh ident<strong>it</strong>y w<strong>it</strong>h a new-found confidence. 137 In Cornwall ne<strong>it</strong>her the
inst<strong>it</strong>utional nor the cultural resources ex<strong>is</strong>ted for <strong>it</strong>s people to res<strong>is</strong>t the externally
imposed category of “county”. Its inst<strong>it</strong>utional shape was more comprehensively
structured by processes at the heart of the Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> then Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h state.
23

Moreover, in Cornwall claims to non-Engl<strong>is</strong>hness have always <strong>be</strong>en contested. Unlike
Wales, where the Welsh language predominated as a vernacular into the nineteenth
century, Cornwall was a l<strong>and</strong> of two tongues from an early date, w<strong>it</strong>h Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>be</strong>ing the
language spoken by the major<strong>it</strong>y of <strong>it</strong>s inhab<strong>it</strong>ants from perhaps as early as the fourteenth
century. Th<strong>is</strong> produced understated internal cultural div<strong>is</strong>ions w<strong>it</strong>hin Cornwall. For
example, in west Cornwall surnames were not unambiguously hered<strong>it</strong>ary until the
sixteenth or seventeenth century, much later than in east Cornwall but mirroring the
practice in Wales. 138 In similar fashion, the presence of Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h saints was more common
in the Corn<strong>is</strong>h-speaking west than in the east. In the latter d<strong>is</strong>tricts Cornwall was much
more like Devon, w<strong>it</strong>h a far lower frequency of Br<strong>it</strong>tonic saints. 139 Th<strong>is</strong> cultural plural<strong>is</strong>m
reinforced <strong>it</strong>s multiple ident<strong>it</strong>ies. John Trev<strong>is</strong>a, originally from mid-Cornwall <strong>and</strong> famed
for h<strong>is</strong> translation into Engl<strong>is</strong>h of Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, felt the need as early
as the 1300s to argue that Cornwall was firmly part of Engl<strong>and</strong>. 140 Trev<strong>is</strong>a, w<strong>it</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>
special interest in the Engl<strong>is</strong>h language <strong>and</strong> from a vantage point as Vicar of Berkeley in
Gloucestershire, may have <strong>be</strong>en atypical. But half a millennium later Franc<strong>is</strong> Harvey, a
Method<strong>is</strong>t lay preacher from the engineering centre of Hayle in the heart of Cornwall’s
industrial region, wrote a rambling eulogy to h<strong>is</strong> homel<strong>and</strong> after emigrating to South
Africa in the 1850s. Harvey’s polemic d<strong>is</strong>played a passionate pride in h<strong>is</strong> Corn<strong>is</strong>hness,
but at the same time firmly rejected statements that Cornwall was “not of Engl<strong>and</strong>”. Th<strong>is</strong>
he claimed was a sl<strong>and</strong>er put about by Cockneys: “Cornwall may justly <strong>be</strong> proud … in
the glorious elements w<strong>it</strong>h which she has served <strong>and</strong> aided, <strong>and</strong> honoured every valuable
interests of the nation; of <strong>be</strong>ing in truth if ‘not of’ yet superior by far to Engl<strong>and</strong>, if really
‘not of <strong>it</strong>’”. 141 From Harvey’s perspective wh<strong>is</strong>pers of “non-Engl<strong>is</strong>hness” were
tantamount to a conspiracy that denied Cornwall the recogn<strong>it</strong>ion <strong>it</strong> so richly deserved at
the forefront of Engl<strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>tory, <strong>be</strong>cause of <strong>it</strong>s role in industrial<strong>is</strong>ation.
Conclusion
Harvey shows that <strong>it</strong> was qu<strong>it</strong>e possible to express an intense Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y but speak
from w<strong>it</strong>hin an Engl<strong>is</strong>h ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory. W<strong>it</strong>hin one d<strong>is</strong>course the terr<strong>it</strong>ory of Cornwall was
“of Engl<strong>and</strong>” but from the other the Corn<strong>is</strong>h people were a Celtic nation <strong>and</strong> “not of
Engl<strong>and</strong>”. 142 The Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>is</strong> the outcome of a h<strong>is</strong>torical process which has both
24

generated a d<strong>is</strong>tinct ethno-h<strong>is</strong>tory for the group but also located the terr<strong>it</strong>ory solidly
w<strong>it</strong>hin the inst<strong>it</strong>utions <strong>and</strong> narratives of Engl<strong>and</strong>. Its modern ident<strong>it</strong>y draws from two
trad<strong>it</strong>ions <strong>and</strong> two d<strong>is</strong>courses. In th<strong>is</strong> sense <strong>it</strong> might <strong>be</strong> viewed as hybrid, as something
deriving from heterogeneous sources or made up of incongruous elements, producing
plural<strong>is</strong>t <strong>and</strong> ambivalent ident<strong>it</strong>ies w<strong>it</strong>hin Cornwall. Not only the regional consciousness
partakes of th<strong>is</strong> hybrid<strong>it</strong>y, but also the regional image, w<strong>it</strong>h the consequence that
simpl<strong>is</strong>tic assumptions of Cornwall as e<strong>it</strong>her (Engl<strong>is</strong>h) county or (Celtic) nation render
the more subtle nature of <strong>it</strong>s ident<strong>it</strong>y opaque. To some extent, a “regional” perspective
allows us more easily to grasp the elements producing Cornwall’s hybrid ident<strong>it</strong>y, <strong>and</strong>
also echoes recent attempts to re-locate Cornwall as a “European region”. However, the
ambivalent place of the concept “region” in Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h spatial d<strong>is</strong>courses <strong>and</strong> the strength of
Europhobia in Cornwall <strong>and</strong> Br<strong>it</strong>ain make the success of th<strong>is</strong> strategy questionable.
Nonetheless, projects to re-define Cornwall as a “region” prefigure attempts to escape
previous categor<strong>is</strong>ations. If the Corn<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>is</strong> hybrid then th<strong>is</strong> also suggests flux <strong>and</strong>
an unfixed ident<strong>it</strong>y pos<strong>it</strong>ion. Reflecting on th<strong>is</strong>, Homi Bhabha sees hybrid<strong>it</strong>y as a form of
“in-<strong>be</strong>tween space”, something he terms a “third space”, from where essential<strong>is</strong>t ideas of
cultural ident<strong>it</strong>y can <strong>be</strong> challenged <strong>and</strong> cr<strong>it</strong>ic<strong>is</strong>ed. Regional projects in contemporary
Cornwall might <strong>be</strong> seen as a way of seeking th<strong>is</strong> “third space”. 143 Meanwhile, there are
suggestions that the ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>it</strong>self <strong>is</strong> undergoing a similar re-articulation, as imaginations
of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h as something other than, or more than, Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>be</strong>gan to burgeon after the
1960s, triggered by the social changes associated w<strong>it</strong>h the onset of counterurban<strong>is</strong>ation.
As an example, a view of Corn<strong>is</strong>h her<strong>it</strong>age has emerged that moves <strong>it</strong> <strong>be</strong>yond the castles
<strong>and</strong> the country houses of the ruling el<strong>it</strong>e <strong>and</strong> the st<strong>and</strong>ing stones <strong>and</strong> monuments of the
d<strong>is</strong>tant past <strong>and</strong> promotes an industrial her<strong>it</strong>age that <strong>is</strong> in Cornwall more than the reassertion
of an overlooked working class culture. It entails a hybrid view of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h
as “industrial Celts”, possessing an ethnic<strong>it</strong>y d<strong>is</strong>tinct from the Engl<strong>is</strong>h, crossing the
boundaries <strong>be</strong>tween Celtic nation <strong>and</strong> Engl<strong>is</strong>h mining county <strong>and</strong> joining the two h<strong>it</strong>herto
separate myths of industrial decline <strong>and</strong> national decline. 144 Perhaps in th<strong>is</strong> re-located
“third space” of Corn<strong>is</strong>hness lies the bas<strong>is</strong> for finally resolving Peggy Com<strong>be</strong>llack’s
conundrum.
25

1 David Cannadine, “Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>tory as a “new subject”: Pol<strong>it</strong>ics, perspectives <strong>and</strong> prospects,” in Un<strong>it</strong>ing
the Kingdom? The Making of Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>tory, ed. Alex<strong>and</strong>er Grant <strong>and</strong> Ke<strong>it</strong>h Stringer (London, 1995), 26.
2 Th<strong>is</strong> had already <strong>be</strong>en triggered by Linda Colley’s Br<strong>it</strong>ons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 (New Haven,
CT, 1992). It has <strong>be</strong>en continued by, amongst others, Ke<strong>it</strong>h Robbins, Great Br<strong>it</strong>ain: Ident<strong>it</strong>ies, Inst<strong>it</strong>utions
<strong>and</strong> the Idea of <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> (Harlow, 1998), Norman Davies, The Isles: A H<strong>is</strong>tory (London, 1999) <strong>and</strong>
Richard Weight, Patriots: National Ident<strong>it</strong>y in Br<strong>it</strong>ain 1940-2000 (London, 2002).
3 For an early examination of Engl<strong>is</strong>hness in the past see Gerald Newman, The R<strong>is</strong>e of Engl<strong>is</strong>h
National<strong>is</strong>m: A Cultural H<strong>is</strong>tory 1740-1830 (London, 1989). Th<strong>is</strong> has <strong>be</strong>latedly <strong>be</strong>en followed by such
works as Ro<strong>be</strong>rt Colls, Ident<strong>it</strong>ies of Engl<strong>and</strong> (Oxford, 2002); Kr<strong>is</strong>han Kumar, The Making of Engl<strong>is</strong>h
National Ident<strong>it</strong>y (Cambridge, 2003). The relationship <strong>be</strong>tween Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> Engl<strong>is</strong>h ident<strong>it</strong>ies <strong>is</strong> explored in
Re<strong>be</strong>cca Langl<strong>and</strong>s, “<strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> or Engl<strong>is</strong>hness? The h<strong>is</strong>torical problem of national ident<strong>it</strong>y in Br<strong>it</strong>ain,”
Nations <strong>and</strong> National<strong>is</strong>m 5 (1999), 53-69; Ben Wellings, “Empire-nation: national <strong>and</strong> imperial d<strong>is</strong>courses
in Engl<strong>and</strong>,” Nations <strong>and</strong> National<strong>is</strong>m 8 (2002), 95-109; Weight, Patriots, 8. For an analys<strong>is</strong> of the
possibil<strong>it</strong>ies of Engl<strong>is</strong>hness in Europe as the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h “project” unfolds see P.W.Preston, Relocating
Engl<strong>and</strong>: Engl<strong>is</strong>hness in the new Europe (Manchester, 2004).
4 Jeremy Paxman, The Engl<strong>is</strong>h: A Portra<strong>it</strong> of a People (London, 1998).
5 Chr<strong>is</strong>topher Bryant, “These Engl<strong>and</strong>s, or where does devolution leave the Engl<strong>is</strong>h?,” Nations <strong>and</strong>
National<strong>is</strong>m 9 (2003), 393-412.
6 See for example Davies, The Isles, 477; Hugh Kearney, The Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Isles: A H<strong>is</strong>tory of Four Nations
(Cambridge, 1989), 1 <strong>and</strong> 105; Eric Hobsbawm, Nations <strong>and</strong> National<strong>is</strong>m since 1780 (Cambridge, 1992),
178; Robbins, Great Br<strong>it</strong>ain, 8-9; Weight, Patriots, 598-603.
7 Tom Nairn, After Br<strong>it</strong>ain: New Labour <strong>and</strong> the Return of Scotl<strong>and</strong> (London, 2000), 14.
8 A.K.Hamilton Jenkin, The Corn<strong>is</strong>h Miner (London,1927), 274-75.
9 Philip Payton, A V<strong>is</strong>ion of Cornwall (Fowey, 2002), 47 <strong>and</strong> 65.
10 Richard Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnic<strong>it</strong>y: Arguments <strong>and</strong> Explorations (London, 1997), 23.
11 Alan Butt Philip, “Regional<strong>is</strong>m in the Un<strong>it</strong>ed Kingdom,” in Regional<strong>is</strong>m in Europe, ed. Peter Wagstaff
(Oxford, 1994), 111.
12 Th<strong>is</strong> d<strong>is</strong>tinction <strong>is</strong> commonly made in social constructiv<strong>is</strong>t approaches to ident<strong>it</strong>y formation. For
differentiation see for example Shmuel E<strong>is</strong>enstadt <strong>and</strong> Bernhard Giesen , “The construction of collective
ident<strong>it</strong>y,” European Journal of Sociology 36 (1995), 72-102; E.Laclau, New Reflections on the Revolution
of Our Time (London, 1990), 33; Edward Said, Oriental<strong>is</strong>m: Western Concepts of the Orient (London,
1985). For integration see Stuart Hall, “Who needs “ident<strong>it</strong>y”?” in Questions of Cultural Ident<strong>it</strong>y, ed. Stuart
Hall <strong>and</strong> Paul Du Gay (London, 1996), 2; Nor<strong>be</strong>rt Wiley, “The pol<strong>it</strong>ics of ident<strong>it</strong>y in American h<strong>is</strong>tory,” in
Social Theory <strong>and</strong> the Pol<strong>it</strong>ics of Ident<strong>it</strong>y, ed. Craig Calhoun (Oxford, 1994), 130-49.
13
Anssi Paasi, “Region <strong>and</strong> place: regional ident<strong>it</strong>y in question,” Progress in Human Geography 27, no.4
(2003), 475-85.
14
The Guardian, 4 January 2006.
26

15 The Guardian, 11 February 2000 <strong>and</strong> 8 July 2004.
16 Hansard House of Commons Official Report: Debates 436, Part no.32 (12 July 2005), cols 237-38WH.
17 Mark S<strong>and</strong>ford, “A Corn<strong>is</strong>h Assembly? Prospects for devolution in the Duchy,” in Corn<strong>is</strong>h Studies
Eleven, ed.Philip Payton (Exeter, 2003), 40-56. For the h<strong>is</strong>tory of th<strong>is</strong> pol<strong>it</strong>ical party see Bernard Deacon,
Dick Cole <strong>and</strong> Garry Tregidga, Mebyon Ker<strong>now</strong> <strong>and</strong> Corn<strong>is</strong>h National<strong>is</strong>m (Cardiff, 2003).
18 Ken Shaw, “Elements in the notion of peripheral ident<strong>it</strong>y,” in Centre <strong>and</strong> Periphery: Br<strong>it</strong>tany <strong>and</strong>
Cornwall & Devon Compared, ed. Michael Havinden, J.Queniart <strong>and</strong> Jeffrey Stanyer (Exeter, 1991), 226.
19 Philip Payton, “On centre <strong>and</strong> periphery,” Journal of Interd<strong>is</strong>ciplinary Economics 4, no.4 (1992), 207-11.
20 Philip Payton, The Making of Modern Cornwall: H<strong>is</strong>torical Experience <strong>and</strong> the Pers<strong>is</strong>tence of
“Difference” (Redruth, 1992), 192-206; Bernard Deacon <strong>and</strong> Philip Payton, “Re-inventing Cornwall:
Culture change on the European periphery,” in Corn<strong>is</strong>h Studies One, ed. Philip Payton (Exeter, 1993), 62-
79; Philip Payton, The Corn<strong>is</strong>h Overseas (Fowey, 1999), 391-99.
21 Fredrik Barth Ethnic Groups <strong>and</strong> Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference (Oslo,
1969).
22 Guntram H.Herb <strong>and</strong> David H.Kaplan, ed., Nested Ident<strong>it</strong>ies: National<strong>is</strong>m, Terr<strong>it</strong>ory <strong>and</strong> Scale (Lanham,
MD, 1999).
23 Th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> an example of the “banal national<strong>is</strong>m” pos<strong>it</strong>ed in Michael Billig, Banal National<strong>is</strong>m (London,
1995).
24 Lu<strong>is</strong> Moreno, Ana Arriba <strong>and</strong> Araceli Serrano, “Multiple ident<strong>it</strong>ies in decentralized Spain: the case of
Catalonia,” Regional <strong>and</strong> Federal Studies 8, no.3 (Autumn 1998), 65-88.
25 Moreno et al, “Multiple ident<strong>it</strong>ies,” 74; John Curtice, “Is Scotl<strong>and</strong> a nation <strong>and</strong> Wales not? Why the two
referendum results were so different,” in Scotl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales: Nations Again?, ed. Bridget Taylor <strong>and</strong>
Katarina Thomson (Cardiff, 1999), 119-47; Al<strong>is</strong>tair Cole, “Devolution <strong>and</strong> decentralization in Wales <strong>and</strong>
Br<strong>it</strong>tany: a framework for evaluation,” International Journal of Urban <strong>and</strong> Regional Research 28, no.2
(June 2004), 354-68; Frans Shrijver, “Regional<strong>is</strong>m in Galicia after regional<strong>is</strong>ation,” Tijdschrift voor
Econom<strong>is</strong>che en Sociale Geografie 96, no.3 (2005), 275-86; Al<strong>is</strong>tair Cole <strong>and</strong> John Loughlin, “Beyond the
un<strong>it</strong>ary state? Public opinion, pol<strong>it</strong>ical inst<strong>it</strong>utions <strong>and</strong> public policy in Br<strong>it</strong>tany,” Regional Studies 37, no.3
(2003), 265-76: Montserrat Gui<strong>be</strong>rnau, “National ident<strong>it</strong>y, devolution <strong>and</strong> secession in Canada, Br<strong>it</strong>ain <strong>and</strong>
Spain,” Nations <strong>and</strong> National<strong>is</strong>m 12, no.1 (2006), 51-76.
26 Philip Spencer <strong>and</strong> Howard Wollman, National<strong>is</strong>m: A Cr<strong>it</strong>ical Introduction (London, 2002), 178.
27 Mary McArthur, “The Corn<strong>is</strong>h: a case study in ethnic<strong>it</strong>y,” Unpubl<strong>is</strong>hed M.Sc thes<strong>is</strong>, (Univers<strong>it</strong>y of
Br<strong>is</strong>tol, 1988).
28 Daily Telegraph, 18 March 2004.
29 Office of National Stat<strong>is</strong>tics (ONS), 2001 Census, Table CO235. The proportion in Wales following the
same procedure to define themselves as Welsh was only 14%, desp<strong>it</strong>e more public<strong>it</strong>y for the option (ONS,
2001 Census, Table KS06A).
30
Research <strong>and</strong> Information Un<strong>it</strong>, Cornwall County Council, Qual<strong>it</strong>y of Life Study (Truro, 2005), 12-13.
27

31
Paasi, “Region <strong>and</strong> place,” 481.
32
Camborne Packet, 13 April 1991.
33
Mark Stoyle, Soldiers <strong>and</strong> Strangers: An Ethnic H<strong>is</strong>tory of the Engl<strong>is</strong>h Civil War (New Haven, CT,
2005).
34
J.G.A.Pocock, “The Atlantic Archipelago <strong>and</strong> the War of the Three Kingdoms,” in The Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Problem,
c.1534-1707: State Formation in the Atlantic Archipelago, ed. Brendan Bradshaw <strong>and</strong> John Morrill
(London, 1996), 181 <strong>and</strong> 184.
35
John Morrill, “The Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h problem, c.1534-1707,” in The Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Problem, c.1534-1707: State
Formation in the Atlantic Archipelago, ed. Brendan Bradshaw <strong>and</strong> John Morrill (London, 1996), 1-3 <strong>and</strong> 6.
See also Kearney, The Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Isles, 1 <strong>and</strong> 105, who adm<strong>it</strong>s Cornwall deserves more attention.
36
For th<strong>is</strong> call see Glenn Burgess, “Introduction: The New Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>tory,” in The New Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>tory:
Founding a Modern State 1603-1715, ed. Glenn Burgess (London, 1999), 19.
37
Adrian Hastings, The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnic<strong>it</strong>y, Religion <strong>and</strong> National<strong>is</strong>m (Cambridge,
1997), 68-69.
38
See also A.L.Rowse, Tudor Cornwall (London, 1941).
39
Michael Hechter, Internal Colonial<strong>is</strong>m: The Celtic Fringe in Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h National Development, 1536-1966
(London, 1975), 64-65. For Cornwall’s economic diversification see John Hatcher, “A diversified
economy: later medieval Cornwall,” Economic H<strong>is</strong>tory Review 22, no.2 (1969), 208-27.
40
Mark Overton, Jane Wh<strong>it</strong>tle, Darran Dean <strong>and</strong> Andrew Hann, Production <strong>and</strong> Consumption in Engl<strong>is</strong>h
Households, 1600-1750 (London, 2004), 177.
41
Kr<strong>is</strong>han Kumar, The Making of the Engl<strong>is</strong>h National Ident<strong>it</strong>y (Cambridge, 2003), 175-225.
42
Philip Dodd, “Engl<strong>is</strong>hness <strong>and</strong> the national culture,” in Engl<strong>is</strong>hness: Pol<strong>it</strong>ics <strong>and</strong> Culture 1880-1920, ed.
Ro<strong>be</strong>rt Colls <strong>and</strong> Philip Dodd (London, 1986), 15.
43
Philip Dodd, “Gender <strong>and</strong> Cornwall: Charles Kingsley to Daphne du Maurier,” in the Regional Novel in
Br<strong>it</strong>ain <strong>and</strong> Irel<strong>and</strong> 1800-1990, ed. Ke<strong>it</strong>h Snell (Cambridge, 1998), 124.
44
Jane Korey, “As we <strong>be</strong>long to <strong>be</strong>: the ethnic movement in Cornwall, Engl<strong>and</strong>,” (Ph.D. d<strong>is</strong>s., Br<strong>and</strong>e<strong>is</strong>
Univers<strong>it</strong>y, 1992), 148.
45
See also Ella Westl<strong>and</strong>, “D.H.Lawrence’s Cornwall: dwelling in a precarious age,” Cultural Geographies
9 (2002), 266-85.
46
Vicente L.Rafael, “Regional<strong>is</strong>m, area studies, <strong>and</strong> the accidents of agency,” American H<strong>is</strong>torical Review
104, no.4 (1999), 1208-20.
47
Malcolm Chapman, The Celts: The construction of a myth (London, 1992). For an attempt to restore that
agency see Bernard Deacon, “Imagining the f<strong>is</strong>hing: art<strong>is</strong>ts <strong>and</strong> f<strong>is</strong>hermen in late nineteenth century
Cornwall,” Rural H<strong>is</strong>tory 12, no.2 (2001), 159-78.
48
James Vernon, “Border crossings: Cornwall <strong>and</strong> the Engl<strong>is</strong>h (imagi)nation,” in Imagining Nations, ed.
Geoffrey Cub<strong>it</strong>t (Manchester, 1998), 169.
49
Robin Cohen, Frontiers of Ident<strong>it</strong>y: The Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> the Others (London, 1994), 35.
28

50 Cohen, Frontiers of Ident<strong>it</strong>y, 12.
51 Bernard Crick, “An Engl<strong>is</strong>hman considers h<strong>is</strong> passport,” in National Ident<strong>it</strong>y in the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Isles, ed. Neil
Evans (Harlech, 1989), 23.
52 Payton, A V<strong>is</strong>ion of Cornwall, 176.
53 Hobsbawm, Nations <strong>and</strong> National<strong>is</strong>m, 178.
54 Bryan Ward-Perkins, “Why did the Anglo-Saxons not <strong>be</strong>come more Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h?” Engl<strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>torical Review
115, no.462 (June 2000), 521.
55 Michael Hechter <strong>and</strong> Margeret Levi, “The comparative analys<strong>is</strong> of ethno-regional movements,” Ethnic
<strong>and</strong> Racial Studies 2/3 (1978-79), 719-20.
56 Kevin Morgan, “The Engl<strong>is</strong>h question: regional perspectives on a fractured nation,” Regional Studies 36,
no.7 (2002), 798.
57 Chr<strong>is</strong>topher Harvie, ‘Engl<strong>is</strong>h regional<strong>is</strong>m: the dog that never barked,’ in Bernard Crick (ed.), National
ident<strong>it</strong>ies: the const<strong>it</strong>ution of the Un<strong>it</strong>ed Kingdom. (Oxford, 1991). pp.105-18.
58 John Marshall, “The study of local <strong>and</strong> regional “commun<strong>it</strong>ies”: some problems <strong>and</strong> possibil<strong>it</strong>ies,”
Northern H<strong>is</strong>tory 17 (1981), 228-29. For an example of the trad<strong>it</strong>ional local h<strong>is</strong>tory approach see Philip
Swan <strong>and</strong> David Foster (eds), Essays in Regional <strong>and</strong> Local H<strong>is</strong>tory (Beverley, 1992).
59 Jon Stobart “Regions, local<strong>it</strong>ies, <strong>and</strong> industrial<strong>is</strong>ation: evidence from the East Midl<strong>and</strong>s circa 1780-
1840,” Environment <strong>and</strong> Planning A 33 (2001), 1306; Edward Royle (ed.), Issues of Regional Ident<strong>it</strong>y
(Manchester, 1998), 4.
60 Alex<strong>and</strong>er Murphy, “Regions as social constructs: the gap <strong>be</strong>tween theory <strong>and</strong> practice,” Progress in
Human Geography 15, no.1 (1991), 22-35.
61 Tim Cooper, review of Mebyon Ker<strong>now</strong> <strong>and</strong> Corn<strong>is</strong>h National<strong>is</strong>m, by Bernard Deacon, Dick Cole <strong>and</strong>
Garry Tregidga, Journal of Twentieth Century Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h H<strong>is</strong>tory 16, no.2 (2005), 217.
62 Celia Applegate, “A Europe of regions: reflections on the h<strong>is</strong>toriography of sub-national places in
modern times,” The American H<strong>is</strong>torical Review 104, no.4 (1999), 1157-82.
63 Helen Jewell, the North-South Divide: The origins of Northern Consciousness in Engl<strong>and</strong> (Manchester,
1994); Neville Kirk (ed.) Northern Ident<strong>it</strong>ies (Aldershot, 2000).
64 Rafael, “Regional<strong>is</strong>m”.
65 Pierre Bourdieu, Language <strong>and</strong> Symbolic Power (Cambridge, 1991), 221.
66 Anssi Paasi, “The inst<strong>it</strong>utionalization of regions: a theoretical framework for underst<strong>and</strong>ing the
emergence of regions <strong>and</strong> the const<strong>it</strong>ution of regional ident<strong>it</strong>y,” Fennia 164, no.1 (1986), 105-46 <strong>and</strong>
“Deconstructing regions: notes on the scales of spatial life,” Environment <strong>and</strong> Planning A 23 (1991), 239-
56.
67 Tr<strong>is</strong>tan Clayton, “Pol<strong>it</strong>ics <strong>and</strong> national<strong>is</strong>m in Scotl<strong>and</strong>: a Clydeside case study of ident<strong>it</strong>y construction,”
Pol<strong>it</strong>ical Geography 21, no.6 (2002), 813-43; Gordon MacLeod <strong>and</strong> Martin Jones , “Renewing the
geography of regions,” Environment <strong>and</strong> Planning D 19 (2001), 669-95.
29

68
Anthony D.Sm<strong>it</strong>h, The Ethnic Origin of Nations (Oxford, 1986); National Ident<strong>it</strong>y (1991); Chosen
Peoples (Oxford, 2003); The Antiqu<strong>it</strong>y of Nations (Cambridge, 2004).
69
Sm<strong>it</strong>h, Ethnic Origin of Nations, 32.
70
Paul Langford, Engl<strong>is</strong>hness Identified: Manners <strong>and</strong> Character 1650-1850 (Oxford, 2000), 256-57.
71
Oliver Padel, “Place-Names,” in The H<strong>is</strong>torical Atlas of South West Engl<strong>and</strong>, eds Roger Kain <strong>and</strong>
William Ravenhill (Exeter, 1999), 88-89.
72
Dorothy Wh<strong>it</strong>elock (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (London, 1965), 39, 53.
73
Charles Thomas, Celtic Br<strong>it</strong>ain (London, 1986) 64 <strong>and</strong> 67.
74
R.R.Davies, “The Peoples of Br<strong>it</strong>ain 1100-1400: II Names, boundaries <strong>and</strong> regnal solidar<strong>it</strong>ies,”
Transactions of the Royal H<strong>is</strong>torical Society, sixth series 5 (1995), 4.
75
Davies, “Peoples of Br<strong>it</strong>ain”, 6.
76
Charles Henderson, Records of the Borough of Truro (Truro, 1929), 9; Peter Hull (ed.) The Cartulary of
Launceston Priory (Exeter, 1987), 9 <strong>and</strong> 17.
77
Davies, “Peoples of Br<strong>it</strong>ain”, 12.
78
Sm<strong>it</strong>h, Ethnic Origin of Nations, 22-32
79
Oliver Padel, “Geoffrey of Monmouth <strong>and</strong> Cornwall,” Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 8 (Winter
1984), 20-27.
80
Edward Spender, Fjord, Isle <strong>and</strong> Tor (London, 1870), 126-27.
81
Peter Ro<strong>be</strong>rts, “Tudor Wales, national ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h inher<strong>it</strong>ance,” in Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Consciousness <strong>and</strong>
Ident<strong>it</strong>y: the making of Br<strong>it</strong>ain 1533-1707, eds Brendan Bradshaw <strong>and</strong> Peter Ro<strong>be</strong>rts (Cambridge, 1998), 8-
42.
82
Matthew Spriggs, “Where Corn<strong>is</strong>h was spoken <strong>and</strong> when: a prov<strong>is</strong>ional synthes<strong>is</strong>,” in Corn<strong>is</strong>h Studies
Eleven, ed. Philip Payton (Exeter, 2003), 228-69.
83
Mark Stoyle, West Br<strong>it</strong>ons: Corn<strong>is</strong>h Ident<strong>it</strong>ies <strong>and</strong> the Early Modern Brut<strong>is</strong>h State (Exeter, 2002), 146.
84
C<strong>it</strong>ed by Matthew Spriggs, “William Scawen (1600-1689) – a neglected Corn<strong>is</strong>h patriot <strong>and</strong> father of the
Corn<strong>is</strong>h language revival,” in Corn<strong>is</strong>h Studies Thirteen, ed. Philip Payton (Exeter, 2005), 115.
85
Herman Merivale, “Cornwall,” The Quarterly Review 102 (1857), 302.
86
Philip Payton, “Cousin Jacks <strong>and</strong> Ancient Br<strong>it</strong>ons: Corn<strong>is</strong>h immigrants <strong>and</strong> ethnic ident<strong>it</strong>y,” Journal of
Australian Studies 68 (2001), 54-64.
87
Charles Barham, “President’s Address,” Journal of the Royal Inst<strong>it</strong>ution of Cornwall 43 (1861), 15-16.
See also Simon Naylor, “Collecting quo<strong>it</strong>s: field cultures in the h<strong>is</strong>tory of Corn<strong>is</strong>h antiquarian<strong>is</strong>m,”
Cultural Geographies 10 (2003), 324.
88
Charles Barham, “President”s Address,” Journal of the Royal Inst<strong>it</strong>ution of Cornwall 45 (1863), 21.
89
Padel, “Geoffrey of Monmouth”.
90
G.C.G.Thomas, “Two Middle Corn<strong>is</strong>h plays: a note,” National Library of Wales Journal 32 (2001-2),
121-22.
91
Charles Thomas, Tintagel; Arthur <strong>and</strong> Archaeology (London, 1993).
30

92
Hugh Thomas, The Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> the Normans: Ethic hostil<strong>it</strong>y, Assimilation <strong>and</strong> Ident<strong>it</strong>y 1066-c.1220
(Oxford, 2003), 353.
93
Thomas, The Engl<strong>is</strong>h <strong>and</strong> the Normans, 355.
94
Bruce Webster, Medieval Scotl<strong>and</strong>: The Making of an Ident<strong>it</strong>y (Basingstoke, 1997)
95
Nicholas Orme, The Saints of Cornwall (Oxford, 2000), 44. Other memories were more likely to have
<strong>be</strong>en confined to the Corn<strong>is</strong>h speaking area. Oliver Padel notes that, in add<strong>it</strong>ion to the Arthurian legends,
two other Br<strong>it</strong>tonic themes – the Tr<strong>is</strong>tan <strong>and</strong> Isolde tale <strong>and</strong> the legend of a drowned l<strong>and</strong> - were found in
the oral culture of Corn<strong>is</strong>h-speaking medieval Cornwall (“Oral <strong>and</strong> l<strong>it</strong>erary culture in medieval Cornwall,”
in Medieval Celtic L<strong>it</strong>erature <strong>and</strong> Society, ed. Helen Fulton (Dublin, 2005), 95-116).
96
For the background to th<strong>is</strong> see Roger Burt, “The transformation of the non-ferrous metals industries in
the seventeenth <strong>and</strong> eighteenth centuries,” Economic H<strong>is</strong>tory Review 48, no.1 (1995), 23-45.
97
John Rule, The V<strong>it</strong>al Century: Engl<strong>and</strong>’s Developing Economy, 1714-1815 (London, 1992), 128; Sidney
Pollard, Peaceful Conquest: The Industrial<strong>is</strong>ation of Europe 1760-1970 (Oxford, 1981), 14.
98
For Cornwall’s role in steam engine technology see Aless<strong>and</strong>ro Nuvolari, “Collective invention during
the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h industrial revolution: the case of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h pumping engine,” Cambridge Journal of
Economics 28, no.3 (2004), 347-63 <strong>and</strong> Nick von Tunzelman,” in The Industrial Revolution, ed.
R.M.Hartwell (Oxford, 1970), 77-98. For the Corn<strong>is</strong>h industrial region see Bernard Deacon, “Protoregionalization:
the case of Cornwall,” Journal of Regional <strong>and</strong> Local Studies 18 (1999), 27-41.
99
Merivale, “Cornwall”, 316.
100
Wilkie Collins, Rambles Beyond Railways (London, 1852), 70.
101
Dudley Baines, Migration in a Mature Economy: Emigration <strong>and</strong> Internal Migration in Engl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong>
Wales, 1861-1900 (Cambridge, 1985), 152-53; Philip Payton, The Corn<strong>is</strong>h Overseas, (Fowey, 1999).
102
J.H.Collins, “Cap<strong>it</strong>al for West Country Mines,” Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society Report 68 (1900),
87-99.
103
Henry Harr<strong>is</strong>, The Luck of Wheal Vor: And Other Stories of the Mine, Moor <strong>and</strong> Sea (Truro, 1901);
Charles Lee, Paul Carah: Corn<strong>is</strong>hman (London, 1898).
104
Piers Brendon, Hawker of Morwenstow: a portra<strong>it</strong> of a Victorian eccentric (London, 1975), 56.
105
Roger Burt (ed.) Cornwall’s Mines <strong>and</strong> Miners: Nineteenth Century Studies by George Henwood
(Truro, 1972), 220.
106
Sm<strong>it</strong>h, Chosen Peoples, 174-75.
107
Cornwall Record Office (CRO), F2/39.
108
William Borlase, Antiqu<strong>it</strong>ies H<strong>is</strong>torical <strong>and</strong> Monumental of the County of Cornwall (London, 1769),
44.
109
Fortescue H<strong>it</strong>chins <strong>and</strong> Samuel Drew, The H<strong>is</strong>tory of Cornwall (Helston, 1824), 206-07.
110
CRO, F2/39.
111
H<strong>it</strong>chins <strong>and</strong> Drew, H<strong>is</strong>tory of Cornwall, 480.
31

112 H<strong>it</strong>chins <strong>and</strong> Drew, H<strong>is</strong>tory of Cornwall, 488-90; Charles S<strong>and</strong>oe Gil<strong>be</strong>rt, An H<strong>is</strong>torical Survey of the
County of Cornwall (London, 1817), 16.
113 Cf. Sm<strong>it</strong>h, Antiqu<strong>it</strong>y of Nations, 222.
114 John Angarrack, Our Future <strong>is</strong> H<strong>is</strong>tory: Ident<strong>it</strong>y, Law <strong>and</strong> the Corn<strong>is</strong>h Question (Bodmin, 2002); Pol
Hodge, Cornwall’s secret war: The true story of the Prayer Book War (Grampound, 1999).
115 Stoyle, Soldiers <strong>and</strong> Strangers, 187 <strong>and</strong> 49. The articles have <strong>be</strong>en reprinted in Stoyle, West Br<strong>it</strong>ons.
116 J.P.D.Cooper, Propag<strong>and</strong>a <strong>and</strong> the Tudor State: Pol<strong>it</strong>ical Culture in the Westcountry (Oxford, 2003),
45.
117 Bruce Lenman, Engl<strong>and</strong>’s Colonial Wars 1550-1688: Conflicts, Empire <strong>and</strong> National Ident<strong>it</strong>y (Harlow,
2001), 25.
118 Colin Kidd, Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Ident<strong>it</strong>ies <strong>be</strong>fore National<strong>is</strong>m: Ethnic<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> Nationhood in the Atlantic World,
1600-1800 (Cambridge, 1999), 291.
119 Stoyle, West Br<strong>it</strong>ons, 157-80.
120 Susan Reynolds, Kingdoms <strong>and</strong> Commun<strong>it</strong>ies in Western Europe 900-1300 (Oxford, 1984), 261.
121 Davies, “Peoples of Br<strong>it</strong>ain,” 19.
122 Philip Jenkins, “The plight of pygmy nations: Wales in early modern Europe,” North American Journal
of Welsh Studies 2, no.1 (2002), 1-11.
123 Angarrack, Our Future <strong>is</strong> H<strong>is</strong>tory, 143-66.
124 A.L.Rowse, Tudor Cornwall (London, 1941), 82; Philip Payton, The Making of Modern Cornwall
(Redruth, 1992), 57; Julian Cornwall, The Revolt of the Peasantry 1549 (London, 1977), 42.
125 Graham Haslam, “The Eliza<strong>be</strong>than Duchy of Cornwall, an estate in stas<strong>is</strong>,” <strong>and</strong> “Jaco<strong>be</strong>an Phoenix: the
Duchy of Cornwall in the principates of Henry Frederick <strong>and</strong> Charles,” in The Estates of the Engl<strong>is</strong>h
Crown, 1558-1640, ed. R.W.Hoyle (Cambridge, 1992), 88-111 <strong>and</strong> 263-96.
126 Cooper, Propag<strong>and</strong>a <strong>and</strong> the Tudor State, 185.
127 Mark Page, “Royal <strong>and</strong> Com<strong>it</strong>al Government <strong>and</strong> the Local Commun<strong>it</strong>y in Thirteenth Century
Cornwall,” (D.Phil d<strong>is</strong>s., Oxford Univers<strong>it</strong>y, 1995), 43.
128 Haslam, “The Eliza<strong>be</strong>than Duchy,” 88.
129 Haslam, “Jaco<strong>be</strong>an Phoenix,” 295-96.
130 Payton, Making of Modern Cornwall, 52.
131 John Rowe, Cornwall in the Age of the Industrial Revolution (Liverpool, 1953), 45-46. See also Evelyn
Cruikshanks, “The Convocation of the Stannaries of Cornwall: The Parliament of Tinners 1703-1752,”
Parliaments, Estates <strong>and</strong> Representation 6 (1986), 59-67. For the argument that the events of 1750-52 were
a Corn<strong>is</strong>h “unilateral declaration of independence” see Angarrack, Our Future <strong>is</strong> H<strong>is</strong>tory, 132-37.
132 Cooper, Propag<strong>and</strong>a <strong>and</strong> the Tudor State, 199 <strong>and</strong> 204.
133 Paul Ward, <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong> since 1870 (London, 2004), 70.
134 John Belchem, “The L<strong>it</strong>tle Manx nation: antiquarian<strong>is</strong>m, ethnic ident<strong>it</strong>y, <strong>and</strong> home rule pol<strong>it</strong>ics in the
Isle of Man, 1880-1918,” Journal of Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Studies 39 (2000), 217-40. Interestingly the Isle of Man has
32

eceived more attention in the l<strong>it</strong>erature than Cornwall, though only a fifth of <strong>it</strong>s size – see also Richard
Prentice, “The ‘Manxness of Mann’: renewed immigration to the Isle of Man <strong>and</strong> the national<strong>is</strong>t response,”
Scott<strong>is</strong>h Geographical Magazine 106, no.2 (1990), 75-88; Susan Lew<strong>is</strong>, “National Day: achieving
collective ident<strong>it</strong>y on the Isle of Man,” in Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Subjects: An Anthropology of Br<strong>it</strong>ain, ed. Nigel Rapport
(Oxford, 2002), 49-65.
135
John Breuilly, “Approaches to national<strong>is</strong>m,” in Mapping the Nation, ed. Gopal Balakr<strong>is</strong>hnan (London,
1996), 151.
136
Webster, Medieval Scotl<strong>and</strong>.
137
See R.Merfyn Jones, “Beyond ident<strong>it</strong>y? The reconstruction of the Welsh,” Journal of Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Studies 31,
no.4 (1992) 330-57; Cole, “Devolution <strong>and</strong> decentralization”.
138
Bernard Deacon, The Corn<strong>is</strong>h Family, (Fowey, 2004), 56-90.
139
Orme, Saints of Cornwall, 45.
140
Ro<strong>be</strong>rt Rees Davies, The First Engl<strong>is</strong>h Empire: Power <strong>and</strong> Ident<strong>it</strong>ies in the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h Isles 1093-1343
(Oxford, 2000), 165.
141
Franc<strong>is</strong> Harvey, Autobiography of Zethar: St Phillockias, Cornu-waille, Engl<strong>and</strong> (Durban, 1867), 29.
142
Henry Jenner, A H<strong>and</strong>book of the Corn<strong>is</strong>h Language (London, 1904); Charles Thomas, the Importance
of <strong>be</strong>ing Corn<strong>is</strong>h in Cornwall (Redruth, 1973).
143
Homi Bhabha, Nation <strong>and</strong> Narration (London, 1990), 211.
144
Amy Hale, “Representing the Corn<strong>is</strong>h: Contesting her<strong>it</strong>age interpretation in Cornwall,” Tour<strong>is</strong>t Studies
1, no.2 ( 2001), 185-96.
33